Rocky Re-Entry

Before I get into the post, I apologize it's taken so long to get this posted.  I started writing it more than a week ago, but I have had a heck of a time staying awake in the evenings lately and my workday lunches have been busy so it's been hard to finish.  

I say this every year nowadays, but taking vacation the week before Labor Day is pretty much the dumbest thing ever.  You'd think it would create this nice dividing line between summer and fall, but it just doesn't work that way.  Instead it's a jarring change, where you left and it was summer and get back and it's fall.  Any sort of change while you're "absent" from normal life can be unnerving, so I guess that's sort of what it is, even if you know it's coming.  Pumpkin everything is the rage, Halloween candy is in stores, school is starting, and you're left wondering what just hit you.  

This year was even worse for a few reasons.  As I mentioned, we didn't get home Sunday night as planned because we decided to stay over at my parents' and spend Monday with Craig's parents for his dad's birthday.  Despite not wanting Monday to be a late night, we didn't end up getting back until after 9pm.  Time well spent, as Craig's dad was thrilled to have us there, but I spent the rest of the night unpacking and barely had time to think of anything else before going to bed.  

I woke up Tuesday and realized I probably needed to run to Wegmans because we had no milk and barely anything else, not to mention that I needed to start stocking up on school lunch stuff.  The cashier asked if I was doing back-to-school shopping, and I said yes, but then added it was also back-from-vacation shopping and new fridge replenishment shopping on top of that, since we had tried to empty what we could before the new fridge arrived the Friday before we left.  I left out that I was also sick with COVID the prior week, so I hadn't been to Wegmans in a long time.  I couldn't help but laugh to myself that I had a quadruple whammy scenario for why we were down on groceries.  It was just crazy.  I also hadn't had to cook dinner in two weeks, so I was pretty overwhelmed with the whole food thing in general.

The COVID thing really complicated re-entry a lot because I was already a week behind on most house things from being stuck in my room for the four days before we left, not to mention being gone the weekend prior.  I had played catch-up on Sunday post-isolation with dishes, wiping down the kitchen, some laundry, and a few other things, but packing had to be the priority.  I still had piles of things to tackle post-vacation--sorting through the fridge manual and paperwork, a couple school prep things, mail, and more laundry.  I also had to check on the yard--mostly dead pots (boo), a too-lively garden that was completely overgrown, tons of weeds elsewhere in the yard, and a couple pool things blown out of place.  I just felt completely out of sorts as a result of all the things that needed to be tackled, and having to jump back into work on Tuesday as well (particularly without the free Monday I was expecting) complicated things further.  Even more annoying was that staying an extra day meant we went a day without our usual medications (I only packed the full 7-day supply which wrapped up Sunday morning), so we went without allergy meds for a day, and Carter and I were both sniffly again.  Carter started on Sunday, though, so I think his might have been a touch of a cold, and I got a very dry nose on the plane Sunday that remained in place on Monday.  By Tuesday the congestion felt a little more pronounced, but not a big deal.  Still, it was unnerving.  By mid-week Craig was also sniffling and ended up with a negative COVID test.  Just this week I read comments on a Disney social media post about a bunch of people who were there around when we were that had at least a few people from their groups come home with COVID--and like me, a couple of the people posting figured they only avoided it because they had just had COVID before their trip.  So, honestly, who knows what we might have been exposed to there.  Everyone else recovered quickly except me.   stayed a little extra sniffly with nagging throat congestion up through about the middle of this week.  Nothing terrible, just nagging.  I think it's starting to improve, finally, two weeks later, but maybe it's just remaining inflammation from COVID?  Or maybe it's fall allergies, which have been tougher for me in recent years?  Or maybe I just keep getting exposed to stuff.  Add that to just being generally tired the last couple weeks (walking 50 miles in a week, particularly after a lot of laying around the previous week, will do that, then getting up an hour earlier every day for school made it worse), and it wasn't the most comforting way to get back to normal.  

As a whole I just felt so out of my groove already because I was cooped up with COVID for days, and then I had a whole week of vacation on top of it.  You'd think it would be easy to start scheduling dinners to cook again since we hadn't had any home-cooked meals in weeks, but no, I was so out of the groove I wasn't even sure what I needed to re-stock from Wegmans.  My memory of what I habitually buy or what we had finished up in the fridge prior to getting the new one had faded already so I felt a little lost there.  I did know I had to go to Aldi and restock because we were totally out of cookies and one type of gluten-free bread and I'd missed two whole weeks of special buys.  I spent most of the first week back looking around the house feeling like there were a million things I should be doing, but I wasn't sure what they were.  In some cases I was making a mental list of tasks reserved for the weekend--taking back uniform pants to two stores (because Jacob is now a 34"L in pants(!)) and ordering new ones, repairing frayed strap seams on my my Disney backpack and my work briefcase, sorting further through the paperwork piles, and making Jacob's long-awaited Chex Mix.  That list was still running and then I got to add house cleaning and fall decorating to it for this weekend.  In the end I also threw in another round of Chex Mix and a batch of meatballs.  The kids have also recently requested either homemade churros or donuts, but that will have to wait for another weekend.  Pumpkin muffin season is almost here, too!

Adding to the fun that first week was that Wednesday was the first day of school.  By some miracle, both kids got out the door on time and we got pictures.  Jacob is likely going to be an even bigger challenge this year because his school starts 10 minutes earlier than his old school and is about five minutes farther away.  But so far so good.  He's taken to showering at night after basketball training, so that has helped.

Remember when he was so little he was barely taller than the door knob?  Geez.

 
He hasn't had much homework, which is good since he's had an absurd amount of basketball stuff almost every day from when he gets out of school until late into the evening, but no real complaints about school itself.  He even found out one of his teachers is the mom of a kid he knew from two schools ago.  I figured out a while back that his principal is the dad of a kid that was in Carter's first daycare room that was born a couple weeks before him and had the best head of hair I'd ever seen on a baby.  I'm hoping we brings his family out to a basketball game or something this year so we could reunite the boys!

Speaking of Carter, he seems to be doing well, too.  He likes his teacher--not as much as the one two years ago, but that would be tough to match.  He has a couple friends in his class, not much homework so far, and is loving being a safety monitor this year.  He was specially picked for the job and it's good to see him wanting to be involved.  I hope that means he will get an award at the end of the year for being a good community member, if nothing else, unlike his big brother who struck out at the moving up ceremony awards despite being pretty good on the academic side.

Wednesday night he mentioned that there was a new 4th grade playground at the school and wanted us to walk over to check it out.  It was a nice, warm night and I needed to get in a little exercise anyway, so we did just that.  The clouds were pretty interesting along the way.

I was sad to see that the school had cut down a bunch of trees lining the one side of the building.  I hadn't done any running this summer where I cut through the school property, so I missed that happening.  There was this gorgeous tree near the Buddy Bench in particular, and now it'll just be out in the blazing sun.  All I can figure is they thought they were a hazard on windy days.  There used to be so many trees back there, and little by little they disappeared and are all gone now.  But sure enough, behind the school near one of the basketball courts, there was this:

School view

Side view

We figured out it was still under construction, but it looked close.  It opened up this past week, so hopefully we can check it out again soon.  I realized it was very similar in spots to the city playground we checked out near the Memorial Art Gallery last fall.  It has the same really cool and challenging climbing structure of that one, at least, but a lot of the other elements are different.  It's a cool addition to the school yard, for sure!

Now we start getting into the full schedule of school stuff.  Carter's music meeting is this week (although I may skip it since we have his instrument already and know the drill).  Viola lessons and chorus should start next month.  His back to school bash is coming this week as well.  We also have Thursday soccer practice and Saturday games for four more weeks.  As I mentioned, Jacob's basketball stuff--between casual school stuff and his travel team--has been nearly non-stop and we're just trying to keep him afloat because it's been a lot physically.  We don't want him at a point where he was in the spring where he was completely exhausted and his body was falling apart, but thankfully his injuries have mostly subsided for now.  He did bruise his tailbone a little last week when he was trying to get up from a stretch and didn't quite make it, so I guess there's never a dull moment with him.  Add in a couple busy weeks of work for me catching up, trying to hit another set of deadlines, and doing two days of on-site events, and it's been a lot to coordinate since we got back.

As I mentioned in my last post, leaving the Disney bubble is hard.  There's something to be said for every day holding the possibility of being a positive core memory.  Every day feels like a new adventure.  It's nice to be away from the usual stresses of cleaning and meal planning and schedules and work.  It's not like it's without its own set of stresses--physical exhaustion, planning well to make the most of opportunities, finding meals, keeping everyone happy, weather, expenses--but I guess different stresses for a week still makes for a nice break.  It's lovely to be in a tropical setting (most of the time), sitting by a pool, eating Dole Whip regularly, and being chauffeured around by a fleet of buses.  I love exploring places and taking pretty pictures, so it's really nice to live like that for a full week.  I'm super grateful for it, but reality hits hard after living the dream, quite literally.

Even since before the trip, we've bantered back and forth about going back--both joking and seriously.  We've discussed repeatedly when that could be and what that could look like.  Jacob still really wants to go with Craig's parents, which could involve going back sooner than we'd otherwise consider, but would be worth thinking about for obvious reasons.  Barring that, I'd be fine considering another trip in about 2-3 years, before the kids are too much older but allowing enough time to recover from two straight trips and to maybe explore some other travel in the meantime.  Once we were there this time, Jacob started talking about a trip with no park days, though I think I would feel like I was missing out on the fun upon seeing people going to and from parks.  There would also be some new things and things we'd definitely want to do again, so I don't think we can avoid it completely, but I could see a trip with a bit less.  In fact, I just saw an article talking about a trip with no park days and what that could entail.  Most of it was resort hopping for photo ops, fireworks viewing, and restaurants, riding all the transportation options, exploring Disney Springs and some of the paid experiences like the balloon ride there, trying out the mini golf courses, finding characters and other free activities around the resort, and just spending relaxing time at the pool.  I could get on board with all of that, with a bit of park time added in.  I still don't feel like we've covered everything, so there will always be a list of things I still want to do, but I'm thankful we crossed off a bunch of new stuff this time to shorten that list a bit more.  I do think I could get more selective with my must-dos, but maybe in a few years I'll want to ride everything all over again!  I do feel like we definitely solidified our love of Old Key West after our Saratoga Springs experience.  Not that it was bad or we can't do both or try something new, but it was good to know that where we've been actually was a great fit for us.  It really has started to feel like home, which is entirely the point of the Disney Vacation Club concept.  Third time was a charm, for sure.  Anyway, give me a few years and we'll see what's next.

Now we've officially been back two weeks.  I just switched my watch back to its normal face from my Mickey/Minnie face because it's time to officially move forward and fully embrace our return to real life.  While I'd like to think we're settling into the new school year and all that comes with it, I feel like we're still in adjustment mode.  Like I said, I'm not entirely sure my body has adjusted to the earlier wake up, and part of me is still in denial that summer is over.  The fall decor went up over the weekend, and in many ways it's nice and comforting, but I keep having moments where I'm regretting the things we didn't get to do over the summer.  At the same time I'm chastising myself because, hello, we did so many good things from spring on--Springfield, Oklahoma City, Indiana, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cedar Point, and finally Disney--so I should just be thankful for what we've done, even if we missed out on little things in between.  We didn't get much pool time, never went mini golfing as a family, and Carter and I didn't get as many adventures as I feel like we used to.  Not to mention that there were house things I wanted to conquer and my window is closing to get proper outside time to do that.  Fall fills up so fast, too.  We have to fit in a pumpkin patch day, I need to see my godson and his mama, I have a busy work weekend coming up, I need to get to our art gallery for a new exhibit and Buffalo's newly reopened art gallery, and hit up some new playgrounds with Carter before he's too big.  Oh, and I sort of wanted to do one more Darien Lake run to wrap up our first season pass year--though we did get another for next year because the price was unbeatable, so unless the weather is perfect and all the good rides are open, that might have to wait.

Fall is great and I'm trying to embrace it.  I can't wait for leaves and I hope some of those planned adventures pan out.  It's hard to leave summer behind, but I guess it's time.