Lazy Days

I am feeling very, very lazy. My initial thought was that this is a holdover from the delightfully idle weekend we just passed.

Saturday night The Neighbor and I hosted a bridal shower for BBB, beginning with dinner at a Caribbean place in the 'hood and ending with waffles and mimosas on Sunday morning. Inbetween we gave ourselves spa treatments, drank wine, watched wedding movies and giggled a lot.

I waddled home yesterday and spent the entire afternoon in my jammies until I realized with a start that guests were arriving at 4 and so perhaps I should rouse myself to sweep, cook something and oh, yeah, put on real clothes.

We have a dear friend, Father RT, who we've known since before he was ordained. He's been in Rome for the last 3 years and has just taken an assignment in Austin, TX. He is currently checking in with family and friends before officially assuming his duties and, as we always do when he's in town, we had a house mass. There is something really intimate about a house mass, a very early-church-Acts-of-the-Apostles sort of thing that is beyond lovely. The "dialogue" of the Mass is very poignant when you are actually looking in the eyes of the person across the table.

After a good churching up we passed a very convivial evening with the assembled group, drinking wine and talking while the chicken finished spinning on the rotisserie. Then we sat down to aforementioned chicken, eggplant gratin (shut up...you'd love it) and a big salad that included a few tomatoes from the garden. The evening was temperate and we dined al fresco (which was the only concession to things Italian as Fr. RT came back to the US tired of Italian food. I can't imagine that but there it is).

I woke this morning well aware of all that requires my attention: restoring order in The Child's room, which has still not recovered from Molly's visit, pungling and weeding and ironing. There is a Parent Association function this weekend that needs some planning. There are half a dozen emails that need answering. But all I can really be bothered to do is fetch another cup of coffee and contemplate the list some more.

Then I figured out what's driving my indolence: summer is winding down. Technically there are still 4 weeks until school starts. One whole month. But just at the moment I'm poised between reflection and urgency. It has been a lazy summer with very little rushing around and virtually no structure. The Child and I have been lying around, reading things and watching things and eating things. We go to bed when we want and rise when we want. (I still get up fairly early but only because I want to, not because I have to). In fact, there's been an astonishing lack of "have to" about this summer. But lately the calendar has been filling up with people coming to town and other bits of things and I feel the inevitable slide toward fall and it makes me melancholy. We haven't even played a game of boules yet this summer. We haven't sat near enough nights under the stars naming constellations and searching for meteors. I have yet to make a berry cobbler. There are still quintessentially summer things to experience before the days grow short and the nights too chilly to eat outside.

It's funny to feel urgent about this. Hardly in keeping with the happy lolling we've done already. And besides, I adore autumn and the routine that comes with the start of school. I look forward to getting the house back and attending to bigger writing projects. But not yet. There is still a month of summer and I want it to be as lazy and fine as the previous 2 months have been. So I dally with my agenda and responsibility, doing just enough to keep us from ruin without engaging so much that I lose track of time and the summer is gone. I am sitting around as much as possible, knowing full well that my sitting around days are numbered.