It’s been a busy few weeks in our world-Betsy graduated from 8th grade, and Felicity from 5th, and there were meetings for work and dinner with friends and all the things.
(Betsy’s class was to say what they want their occupation to be as they got their certificate-Betsy wants to be a pediatrician, which has been her dream since she could talk. My mom asked me what I would have said at age 14 and the answer to that is that I wanted to be a wedding coordinator. Such dreams.)
The start of summer is mostly just the best time-the weather is fairly lovely, not yet scorching hot, and the girls are so happy to have days of staying in their pajamas, eating a million popsicles, going to the pool, staying up to watch *all the movies*-it’s such bliss.
I miss my old life most of all in summer, as I leave in the morning and miss all the fun all day long. But I do love my job and we have grown accustomed to food and shelter, so off I go.
This year is the year of Betsy and the Bug’s Brady Bunch Binge-a-thon. (I seem to have taught them that thinking up a cool name for your most geeky endeavor makes it even more cool-I firmly believe this. I’m still All 80s All the Time Summer, myself.)
Anyway, there are a lot of things that I’m loving just now:
Rocketman
All the hearts. The music is fabulous (of course), the story is so compelling-and I say this as someone who mostly knew the whole thing going in. Taron Egerton is pitch perfect and Jamie Bell is also wonderful.
I had a song that I played for each of the girls when I was pregnant, a song that is “their” song to me, and Betsy’s is “Tiny Dancer.” So of course I cried all over her when they sang it in the film. “Tiny Dancer,” to me, is about carrying this person in your heart, this person that no one else can see but that you know to your bones is there. When I was young, I talked so much about my children, and of course people acted like that was weird because it was, but to me, I knew that they were there, just waiting to meet me someday. When they laid Betsy in my arms and I looked at her big blue eyes, I cried so hard because it felt like, “Oh, it’s you. Finally.”
(Felicity’s song, if you are wondering, is “Sweet Child of Mine.” And Isaiah, who of course came into my life at the age of one, does indeed have a song, “Swept Away,” by Christopher Cross.)
I Think You’re Wrong but I’m Listening by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers
I know, I talk about Pantsuit Politics all the time, and I do so wish that everyone would listen to every episode because I love how Beth and Sarah disagree without any anger, how they parse out what their position is, how shaded all of their positions are-as a person who does not see black and white in any issue, I so appreciate the nuance that they bring to their conversations. This book lays out exactly what the parameters are for those conversations, lays out how to extend grace when you just feel like the other person is flat out wrong.
Aladdin
I really enjoyed the new Aladdin-I don’t compare the live action versions to the animated movies, I go in with no real expectations, so perhaps that changes things. What I loved the most to be honest was that Will Smith seemed to be having an excellent time-I am old enough to remember those summers when Will Smith was in the blockbuster movie of the summer, and the thing that I loved about those movies was that he always seemed to be having such a good time. (I think that, at least at the beginning of his career, Will Smith just thought he was so lucky to be invited to the party, and it showed in his enthusiasm for his projects.)
Booksmart
My gut reaction to this was, it’s a bit much. I went into it expecting something a bit different than it was-parts of it I thought were hilarious, and parts just uncomfortable. Sort of similar to how I feel about Bridesmaids. But in the time since watching it, I listened to a podcast full of people who loved this movie and they did illuminate me to bits that I just glazed over without much thought. So perhaps I need to think about it some more.
So far, summer is delightful. Betsy is working a 5000 piece puzzle, so my family room is sort of a disaster, and the girls are inhaling The Brady Buch and we are watching The Wonder Years (they make fun of me because I cry at the end of every single episode) and we are catching lightning bugs and jumping on the trampoline and getting ice cream from the Dairy Duchess and going to the playground (it is hilarious to me when they talk about “when they were little” at the elementary school). It’s a summer that mirrors all the summers in my life, which is what happens when you live in the same place for 40 years.
But I promise, I wouldn’t want it any other way.
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