The best 24 hours in a long time

Ah, freedom! Quasi-freedom anyway. Yesterday concluded "dead week," the supposed calm before the storm of finals, which is, in reality, far more grueling in its own way. Papers, projects, and presentations are usually due this week which meant that I was stretched fairly thin. But now its over, and I just need to get through finals before I can enjoy every last drop of summer.

Yesterday evening Libby was sleeping at a friend's house and Todd was traveling home from business in...some state, somewhere. (I can absolutely never keep track of where he is from one day to the next, so why try?) That left Jesse and me to enjoy the evening together.

The first thing I did was to mow the lawn and weed the flowerbeds. That may sound like a chore but having the time to be able to do it with nothing else on my mind was a huge luxury. And my grass looks fantastic, unlike the neighbour's lawn with their carpet of dandelions.

Jesse elected to eat dinner at Outback, a great pick; I can't remember the last time I ate there because we've pretty much switched over to Mountain Jack's for all our steak needs. It was fantastic to be able to sit with my boy and have frank conversation led by him. He is such a great kid, and so intelligent, and I needed that reconnection with him. After we were sufficiently disgusted with ourselves for eating too much, we ran to the mall and Target to pick up some items that Jesse needs for his 5th grade camp next week.

Jesse decided that a trip to the bookstore was overdue. Our policy is that we will buy our kids as many of whatever kind of books they want, they just have to read them. Jesse probably has some still-unread books on his shelves, but there are always exceptions to be made for every rule. Jesse made a bee-line for the humour section and picked out collections of "The Far Side," "Calvin and Hobbes," "Foxtrot," and "Dilbert." We swung by Blockbuster to rent a couple of Indiana Jones movies, which Jesse watched while putting together his new Lego set while I fell asleep on the couch beside him.

Todd woke me up when he got home past midnight and we watched Junebug together. Again, being able to sit down and watch a movie without thinking of everything else I should be doing is lovely!

This morning I slept until 11:15. Bliss! After I picked Libby up from her friend's house, we enjoyed a family lunch at Nine Irish Brothers, did some yard work, enjoyed the sunshine, went and got a pedicure, made an appointment for a facial, took a nap (unbelievable, but true) and contemplated catching up on the laundry and doing something with that torn-up kitchen floor.

Now I prepare for finals. I feel like I have three A's in the bag, and two that I will have to work for but are possible. As soon as I walk out of my last final on Saturday morning, Todd and the kids will pick me up and we are going to Six Flags, baby!