Tomorrow is the worst day of summer. Is there any day less looked forward to than the last day-long drive home at the end of a great vacation, knowing you’ll roll in late and have top rise early for work? Goodbye, Michigan. Goodbye, family and friends. And thank you for taking such good care of us!
Summer Vacation, Day 74: A Good Day
This, my friends, is a good day. I don’t often wax religious on these pages, but we spent this Sunday morning where we ought to: in church. We were seated with our friends and their families, and the music was tremendous (an unlikely-looking older fellow in a resort shirt with two buttons open, singing nearly like an operatic tenor, flanked by several sweet-voiced church ladies).
After mass, our new god-daughter, Addelyn, was baptized, along with six other children. She slept peacefully through the first half of the ceremony, until the deacon anointed her chest, then looked in wide wonder as she was baptized with water, marked with chrism, dressed in her white baptismal garment, and entranced by her baptismal flame. We’ve been godparents before, but this one hit home – she feels like one of our own. We love her, and we’ve told her so.
I sat, carefully holding her candle, gazing at this little girl. Then I turned to Jodi and said, “Happy Anniversary.”
That’s right: 12 years now. Jodi and I were once talking to a former coworker of mine at a bar, and he told her that I seemed like the happiest married man he’d ever met. He joked with me that I might be the only one. I didn’t know whether to feel happy or sad about that.
Today I know: I’m happy. Thank God for Jodi – and little Addy, too!
Summer Vacation, Day 73: BFF and Stuff
Cooked breakfast for the masses this morning, then met some dear friends, Matt and Laura, in Big Rapids for a couple hours. Played in the park with their two boys and met their twin daughters (age 2 and a half already!) Then on to Todd and Suzette’s place.
There are friends, friends, friends, and friends in this world. Some you’ve known forever and love to see. Some you’ve grown with – as individuals, couples, families. Some you meet over the years, unexpectedly, and hit it off with – something new forms in a strange place!
And some transcend all of that. Maybe we’re just lucky – but we have friends who are like soul-mates en masse. We love each other like family, celebrate like friends, and trust each other completely. God has blessed us with people like our own. It’s so good to see them!
Summer Vacation, Day 72: Gang’s All Here (Belated)
Been sleeping on the houseboat with the full moon for a night light. Jill and her kids (plus her boxer) came up to the lake, too, and the boys (minus Trevvy) went fishing. Lots of too-small walleye.
Then Brendan finally hooked something. The pole bent double. The drag whined as line was pulled out against the reel’s wishes Dziadzi was ready with the net, and Gabe and Kyle were cheering him on … and it spit the hook. Oof. We all felt terrible, and Dziadzi shouted something it’s best I don’t repeat here.
Brendan took it in stride. He imagines a massive fish and tells a good story. Dziadzi tells him his great-grandpa caught few fish, but always caught the biggest. He sees himself in that light.
Gabe suspects the fish was “Old Mocker” – the fish who’s been jumping on all sides of the houseboat this entire trip. Gabe imagines a wise and clever fish who, like Moby Dick, can show up in one place and then somewhere else entirely nearly simultaneously.
He called the fish “Old Mocker,” of course, because it continued to mock us each time we set out …
Summer Vacation, Day 71: Home Free
Jodi and I are at my folks’ place today. The wee ones are fishing with Busia and Dziadzi (wish ’em luck!), while we chill, blog, do laundry, and assorted other everyday chores, kid-free.
We plan to have a kid-free visit with a couple of old friends, a kid-free lunch with another friend, maybe do some kid-free napping, then enjoy a kid-free supper with some couple-friends who, completely coinicidentally, are also kid-free.
I hope Bren catches a fish. Beyond that, I’m soaking the quiet.
