Poem for Tuesday

Post-Vacation Tristesse
By Charles Harper Webb

The Jumbo Jet has barely shuddered off
The ground, and I'm depressed. My scuba mask
And fins, my fly rod and beach hat

Crush each other in an overhead locker
Dark as the bedroom closet they're returning to.
Already the week's good times melt

Together like caramels in a hot car.
My vow to "Do this more often!" recedes
With the jade palms and sun-stroked beaches

I can barely see through my scratched window
As the pilot thanks us for "flying
United," and climbs through ectoplasmic

Clouds into the jet stream that circles
Earth's head like a tedious tune,
And like a kick in the rear, hustles us

Homeward through a sky which, though it looks
blue enough to house heaven, is colorless
As life without you, and just goes on and on.

--------

We're home. Had a pretty good drive -- LONG wait for lunch since hubby only wanted to stop somewhere within a mile of the highway and through much of NC, there aren't any places within a mile of I-95, but no traffic to speak of and the weather was good. We watched Eight Below (which upset younger son for awhile as some of the doggies suffer greatly, but had a lovely happy ending like March of the Penguins) and read the end of The Dark Is Rising and most of the first half of Greenwitch. Had Subway for lunch when we finally stopped (by then it was nearly 2 p.m. and I needed Excedrin, as I had not eaten since 9 a.m. and then all carbs because there were 100 people for breakfast in a lobby designed to seat 20).

Got home to what I can only describe as a mixed reception. Mother is going to describe me and family as filthy screaming ingrates so I may as well begin with that. At some point between the time left, having taken wonderful care of my cats for more than a week *grovels* and our arrival, she had not only come over with her cleaning lady and had the house cleaned -- very nice, on the one hand, but on the other hand it would have been so much nicer had she done this WHILE I WAS AROUND so I could ask that certain things not be meddled with, moved or otherwise knocked out of place. And she replaced my kids' sheets, comforters and pillows -- I am sure she was very pleased with herself, oh, look, I got them the nice things their parents don't bother with, again WITHOUT ASKING ANYONE. My kids were both hysterical at bedtime -- wanted their old comforters back, things they chose and have slept with for years and years. The tags are off the new stuff -- it's not even like we can exchange them for new things they picked out themselves. I spent all afternoon being all "Oh look, how nice that you have new stuff!" and watch, I am going to get blamed for their rejecting them -- my father is going to give me guilt about how much money my mother spent because we never bothered to get our kids nice new cheesy sports-theme comforters.

My mother has already announced that we must spend time at the beach planning the table decorations etc. for son's Bar Mitzvah. Once again I am thisclose to accepting Kali as my personal Destroyer just to get away from all this bullshit. I don't even want to go to the beach, and that is really saying something...am wondering whether I will be stricken with appendicitis if I think about faking appendicitis just to get out of going, and have to remind myself that that is the God my mother believes in and made puh-puh-puh noises in fear of all my life who does things like that, not the one I believe in. I cannot believe I feel this oppressed in my own HOUSE within hours of returning from vacation.


A chipmunk at the Pittsburgh Zoo, because chipmunks always make me feel better.

I am told I missed a huge amount of fannish wank while I was gone! Huzzah! Hope I never find out exactly what it was all about. *g*