Not Ready
Apparently, I am so darned busy being peaceful that I can't quite muster the energy to post. Actually, its been really crazy since the 4th. This past weekend we drove up to Vancouver and spent time with friends and my sister. I spent an evening with an old high school friend that I found on Facebook. It was nice to see where she lived and to get to know her kids a little. The next day, I met with the sweetest girl from Russia who I am helping to write a personal essay for Chatelaine Magazine, a Canadian fashion magazine. She truly was lovely. And young. And I realized the amount of time covered in her essay was much less than I supposed.
I arrived at my sister's house and helped her prepare for a party of Realtors that night. Turns out Realtors like to drink. A lot. And laugh. A lot. Toward the end of the evening, when it looked like things might get a little sloppy I pulled a big sister and started cleaning up. Its like turning the lights up in a bar. Soon, everyone was stumbling away (in the company of a DD, have no fear).
The next day, Carter, my niece and I wandered the steamy streets of Whistler which I discovered stay quite warm, protected from cool mountain breezes by 4 floors of condos. As temps reached 90 degrees (30+ in Canadian), it got darned hot. So it was strange to be buying ski gloves, goggles and snow pants for Carter's sojourn in a couple of weeks to snowboarding camp on Mount Hood in Oregon. Yup SLEEPOVER camp. He has managed two sleepovers now, without being driven home at midnight. Could he really be growing up?We watched the BMX bikes come leaping down the scariest looking downhill course on the mountain. Then they loaded their bikes onto the chairlift and went up for more. Fascinating, until a whole family came and stood in front of us, as if we didn't exist. So rude.
Another night of frivolity was spent with friends whose daughter is going to the same camp with Olivia. This will be their third year. In past years the camp has been just outside Victoria, a lovely, but oddly difficult excursion from Seattle. This year the camp found a new location just around the corner from my sister's house. An amazing new University in the town of Squamish, BC that is like staying in a swank ski chalet in Aspen. Big huge glass and timber buildings, surrounded by green with snow-topped mountains on all sides. Olivia looked like she had died and gone to heaven when she discovered her room had a microwave. And a fridge! She was to share a room with 4 other girls, 2 girls to a bedroom that each shared a bathroom. And a balcony. When can I go to art camp?
It was a strange feeling leaving her there, as though she was actually about to spend her first day at University. Suddenly it doesn't seem so impossible or more to the point, that far away. I have to admit that I was just a little bit glad when she hugged me tighter when I suggested I should go. "I'm not ready yet!"
No, and neither am I.