I've done a lot of moving, a lot of meeting, and a lot of small talk. My top two least favorite questions are:
When is he coming home? Even if I knew, I wouldn't be able to tell you.
and
Have you thought about having kids? Since I do have a working brain, yes, I've thought about it.
I get both of these questions a lot.
The next question I never want to answer, or don't know how to answer, is How was your summer?
I usually say Good! How about you?
The response is usually Good, good! Did you go anywhere? What'd you do?
#1 No. I didn't go anywhere.
#2 Do you want an itemized list of what I did? It will involve snakes, pulling tumbleweeds, dogs, and watching TV.
#3 Just tell me where you went on vacation so we can move on.
I know I sound bitter. I try not to let that actually come out.
There's clearly nothing wrong with traveling and relaxing and having fun.
This picture is really neither relaxing or fun because it took some effort to scramble up on that thing.
I parkoured my way up, via the fence.
For the last several years, I haven't done those things in the summer because of circumstances. I mean, I've relaxed and done some fun things. I haven't done cross-country or intercontinental vacations in the summer though. A lot of teachers do these things, obviously, because that's their time off. It makes sense.
When your spouse isn't a teacher though, nothing changes in the summer for him or her. Even if Scott were here, we probably wouldn't go on vacation in the summer...I'm a fan of going places in the winter. EVERYONE vacations in the summer. It's like flying during Thanksgiving or Christmas. Pick an off week, not the most congested ones. Our trips are dictated by his schedule miraculously aligning with mine, and that doesn't happen often. It happens at Christmas and traveling at Christmas is hard on the soul. Plus, with any joint time off, we usually work on the house. Having a finished kitchen has always been my priority over a trip to the beach.
I never know how to answer the How was your summer? question because my answers are boring. I think it's awesome if you got to travel over the summer, and I don't feel bad for myself because I haven't been hopping around the country (I feel bad for myself for other reasons, thankyouverymuch).
But I don't want you to feel bad for me either. There's a lot of things I would change right now, but wishing I'd gotten a chance to lay on a beach or walk the streets of NYC in recent weeks aren't some of them.
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For the record, my go-to question when I meet someone new is usually Where are you from? because most people I know in any place I've been aren't actually from that place. Much better than What do you do? or *shudder* What does your husband do?...that's a common one in the military world.
