Growing up, Summer was my glimpse of "what life should be." Three months of trading in school uniforms and homework assignments for all day pajamas, reading by the creek, and tending to tomato and bean plants with my grandparents.
Being an Adult With No Kid, Summer is a time forgotten. Life hasn't slowed down since that first desk job I got years ago and while I've still observed the vagaries of Independence Day, Labor Day and Memorial Day, they are poor substitutes for a real Summer.
To be honest - part of why I want to be a writer is this idyllic notion of a year-round-Summer-Life. Of staying in my pajamas all day. Of reading by the beach (because we all know the best writers spend a lot of time reading.) Tending to my garden.
Dangerous, isn't it? Most writers keep their day jobs to pay the rent. Most writers are handcuffed to their desks, hunched over teeny laptops. Most writers work really damn hard.
But I can't shake that dream - that idea - that hope. This year, my Summer begins with three back to back writing-related trips to Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles. I can't help the buzzing excitement "what if what if what if what if" - what if I can make it happen? What if I can have Summer all year long?
Dangerous, indeed - but it keeps me here, at my laptop, typing away.
* I had a lovely picture to share of me sitting on a bale of hay. Really. Me. On Hay. But Technology (my scanner, my laptop, the internet) hates me so instead I have nothing. *
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6 comments:
i believe with all my heart that buzzing hope of the "what if what if" variety is something that humans are entitled to until they're dead.
So glad i'll be seeing you on the other coast very soon...
Martha, you have captured the essence of a: growing up and away from the three month idyll of summer and b: one of my reasons for wanting to be a writer! Lovely lovely post!
Keep imagining your life of never-ending summer and it will happen, Martha. I may be one of the few who actually like my day job, although I do wish I could wear my pajamas to work.
I'm with you Martha. I own more pairs of pajamas than I do pairs of jeans.
I am delusional too. I keep telling myself, "When things calm down..."
Keep it up Martha - you'll capture that life. It's right there waiting for you.
Have fun at all your trips and buy Rachael a dirty martini in DC for me!
~Stephanie
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