Day One of My Nuptial Notes: I’m Already Tired.
First Sunset in Southern Illinois
As promised in my previous post, this is the first entry in my wedding-month diary. My husband and I (and nine-month-old labradoodle) relocated to a VRBO in Southern Illinois preceding our daughter’s wedding over Labor Day weekend. Joan Didion is famously quoted as saying, “I don’t know what I think until I write it down.” I feel the same way. Writing is a way for me to process occasions, and I’m hoping these posts will provide perspective on experiences I have longed to share with my daughter.
Today’s entry might seem rather mundane for some lucky moms, but it’s a novelty to me. Due to our proximity, I was able to pop in to take my daughter to lunch. She is in corporate sales at the PBS/NPR station on the SIU (Southern Illinois University) campus. There aren’t a lot of restaurant options in Carbondale, but the food was hardly the focus (it was to Tracy, however, who is always famished). We had face-to-face time to add, edit, and delete items on our bridal shower to-do list and to visit her favorite bakery and food co-op. “I’ve wanted to show you my hang-outs Mom,” she said, “now we have the time for me to share my life with you.” I’m sure I was beaming. I’m 71 and it feels wonderful to be wanted and needed by my forty-four-year-old daughter.
One item on her to-do list, for which I was enlisted to help, was performing as SUPER WHY!, a character on the PBS Kids animated television series who teaches young children reading skills. Kroger Grocery store (an underwriter of WSIU) was hosting a grand opening at 8:00am in Mount Vernon, an hour’s drive away from Marion where we are living for the month. Side note: Everything in southern Illinois is at least thirty minutes away from wherever I happen to be standing. But I find driving through parts of the Shawnee National Forest and over a large reservoir to be relaxing. So different from Orlando’s landscapes.
Shawnee National Forest
Back to Tracy’s gig at Kroger and a subsequent one at the Carbondale Science Center. She really did need help. She can barely see through the “eyes” of this huge-headed costume and was overheated to the point of almost passing out on more than one occasion. I was drafted to interact with curious kids and amused parents.
Tracy as Super Why! with Kroger Mascot
Tracy also conscripted me (she is very persuasive) to accompany her to not one, but four, doctors’ visits during my stay in Southern Illinois. I haven’t met one of her doctors since she was in college. It felt like a privilege to me although the staff at the gynecology and optometry offices were probably more than a little surprised to find me seated beside their 44-year-old patient in the exam rooms.
I have been looking forward to this month away from my Orlando life since Christmas Day when Tracy became engaged. The opportunity to spend time with my daughter and future son-in-law and escape the hideous Florida heat in an entirely different geographic region, filled me with excitement. The one thing I failed to anticipate, however, is how tired I would be. My creative energy is routinely zapped. My naïve plan had been to post daily descriptions of life in Southern Illinois spent hiking on land which native Americans lived for more than fifteen thousand years.
Well obviously, dear readers, as you may or may not be aware, there have been few (well only one actually) pithy posts coming from my pen since taking up residence here three weeks ago today. Instead, I want to take a nap or watch an episode of Grantchester on my PBS app. Many nights find me in bed by nine (although at 8:15 I start glancing at the clock hoping it is at least 8:50 so I can begin prepping for bedtime.) Once in bed I allow a giant sigh of relief to escape my solar plexus. “I’m back in one of my favorite spots,” I say to my husband as I begin my bedtime regiment of: Wordle; Quordle, Crossword puzzle, Connections, solitaire, and then reading until my iPad hits me in the face.
I find, however, I need more than just this nighttime ritual. I need a stronger stuff. More about how this is achieved (albeit infrequently) in my next post. Thanks for hanging with me.