Susan Senator

Yesterday was rainy. I felt a bit out of sorts because my whole right side, from my hip down, aches. (Probably from the new exercise, bellydance. I am overdoing it, as I always do new passions.) I took naps and used a heating pad.

We tried to go to the ocean anyway; you never know around here, what it will be like right at the beach. There is often totally different weather there! But not yesterday. The sky was overcast and at first Max wanted to simply shut himself in the car rather than try it. Once on the beach, Nat had a bit of a pinching fit and kept telling us he wanted it to be hot and sunny. Ned held onto him and told him that we all did. I said that the weather is from the sky, not Mommy and Daddy.

We set up and all tried the water, which was cold. The cold felt good on my leg, so I stayed in. After a bit, I set up a chair with my legs in the water and read the newest Glamour, which promised to tell me the 40 all time Do’s and Don’ts of fashion! I love and hate those. I laugh when I see the dont’s, and yet I also feel angry at the narrow confines of what’s acceptable in fashion and this culture, and this kind of “Do” and “Don’t” is a main contributor.

The heavy drops hit me a few minutes into reading. Ned and Nat were out there, of course. I ran for the blanket and started gathering stuff up. Everything was getting soaked. Ned and Nat arrived. We made a fast exodus along with all the other crazy beachgoers, back to the parking lot.

The rest of the day was spent indoors, reading, talking, trying to fix my leg, and making arrangements for our Washington trip. I talked to all my friends about it, what to wear, etc., and I think we’re coming home a little early to take care of Ned’s tux and my dress. My friend Emily has an old bridesmaid gown she thinks might work, and I looked at what Bloomingdales has.

Ned spent a few hours helping format my father’s new Haiku book. He is submitting it to IUniverse, a self-publisher with a very lovely product. My former agent is a Senior VP there and is taking good care of him. Still, the formatting is a pain, so Ned to the rescue. Then, the Internet kept failing here, so no one could do anything online (Max and me), so Ned had to talk to Verizon for a while. Mom kept picking up her friend’s poetry memoir and showing us various poems she liked, in an attempt to get us to think about better stuff. But I was too stressed about my upcoming trip and Ned was preoccupied. I realize I hardly talked to Mom all day! Very unusual.

Hard to keep Nat occupied on such a day. Ned and I were very distracted and Nat was so disappointed about the weather. He and Ben and Max did a big floor puzzle, and Nat was amazing at it! Max was reading Fahrenheit 451 for — High School!!!! And B was drawing a lot, plus trying to get people to play bocce with him.

Mom told me Ned and I could go out to dinner. I jumped on it, but knew that Ned would be a bit reluctant about the money. It is very hard these days. We continue to be in spending mode, even though we should be in saving mode. I am bringing in very little with my freelance, so now I am trying to get a job teaching at a local college. Anyway, I convinced Ned we’d go light somewhere.

As we were leaving, I heard Mom offering to read to Nat. He kept saying, “Grandma will read it, Grandma will read it.” We knew that this meant he did not want to read with her. Nat said, “Grandma will sit over there and read it.” “It” was a Doctor Suess book. Mom finally just took the book, sat down, and read it to herself! Because Nat had asked her to.