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Saturday, August 22, 2009

Ongoing August Syndrome

It has been a while, to be sure, and all sorts of things went on in the last eleven days or so, most of which point to some sense of progress. Home repairs have happened, leaving the promise of more home repairs in their wake. Terrifying computer corruption collapse happened and seems to have been fixed (touch wood). Various professional decisions on my part were made and unmade, sort of remade and are now festering. The children learned more stunts. I have lost my temper a few more times than I find comfortable.

I can't wait for school to start again. September always arrives with tremendous promise, perhaps it is all delusion that comes in the wake of the relief of having to sort out the deadly weeks of August where nothing at all manages to happen and all questions and problems go unanswered and unresolved, but I love it. This year both of my children will be in school, so that itself is interesting and terrifying. I have been assured that my younger child is ready for school but I do wonder if the institution is ready for him.

It's been sort of interesting to see how much this feeling of intractability is in the air. All over the place there's news about the impossibility of everything.

This week the New York Times ran a story about the pain of the urban ice cream truck because parents can't stand arguing with their children about not giving them frozen treats. (I don't mind these disputes, myself, and have never minded saying "no" to my children about these things or being quixotic-- sure some days they get ice cream, most days they don't.)

And then Slate's Double X blog talked about an article called "The Case Against Having Kids" which seems written to get everyone's dander up in the cruelest month. I have not read it but predict that it discusses the selfishness of non-parents, the selfishness of parents and the horrible harm everyone does to the environment. These articles keep popping up and people keep getting all bent out of shape about them in spite of the eternal mystery of why anyone cares about other people's non-harmful life choices.

But September is coming and with it I see order and productivity, an end to savage humidity and hair that looks less like I've gone a few rounds with the electroshock machine, and the return of a few folks whose presence I realize I rely on.

Are you out there languishing in the eighth month or is it a big vacation party for you?

posted by Elise at 10:00 AM

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2 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Elise,

I've never commented on your blog before though I have enjoyed dipping in here and there to read your posts.

For me, August is a long prelude to the saddest day of the year (Labour Day here in Canada). I'm a teacher, so all of the intractability that festers in August comes to me, en masse, in September. September is hell. I drink a lot more in September than I do any other time of the year.

8/28/2009 10:22 AM

bridgie said...

I'm wondering if you are aware that Kvetch has been down for a few days - all I get is SQL errors every time I try to visit.

Thanks for keeping indiebride around, it's been immensely useful to me! I hope that if you ever get tired of maintaining it (which would be totally understandable) that somebody else will step up & maintain it for you.

8/30/2009 2:08 PM

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