So, I think, in the end, a long weekend was most of what I needed. Mostly.

As you might have figured, the last few weeks have been pretty stressful. Too many reasons to list at this point, really, and honestly, I just want to get past them. I think I’m mostly done with them, now that I’ve caught up with the last of the meatspace friends who might care. I’m going to try to look forward a bit now.

At least I will after I comment a bit on the weekend.

We did some things. For example, on Friday, we spent an afternoon/evening at the county fair. Sure, we do it every year, but this year we spent a little more time because the other option was to sit at home in the dark. It wasn’t all bad. We pet chickens and pigeons and a baby bison. We watched the dog show, the alligator show, and the pig races. We ate carnival food. We all got airbrushed temporary tattoos. Mine washed off, but everyone else still has theirs (and I kind of like @fairiemom’s – I wouldn’t complain if she decided she wanted to go more permanent in a similar fashion – honestly? kinda sexy). It didn’t rain, but it looked like it.

Power came back a couple of hours after we got home. If the cheers inside the house didn’t wake me up, the whoops of triumph from the rest of the neighborhood would have.

Saturday, my lovely wife took me to a wine festival on the other side of town as a belated birthday gift. There, we tasted all sorts of excellent wines, petted (but did not bring home) some cute six week old puppies, and only bought four bottles (two from here, “Pow Wow” comes highly recommended). Rain threatened further.

Sunday: laundry day. Also, I started to get over my fear that the power would go out again, so I went shopping and put things back in the fridge.

On Monday, we attended a party at the home of some friends and spent time engaging in interesting conversation with people who are much cooler and much more creative than I am. It was fun, and I think I mostly held my own in the company of professional writers and performers. Then we walked to the river with a subset of that crowd, and I didn’t mangle my back quite as much as last time. Plus, all our stuff got wet due to a random downpour.

And finally, Tuesday, I stretched my weekend an extra day so as to see the kids off for the first day of school. My ability to prepare scrambled eggs was questioned. After the kids were installed on buses, the rest of us went for a little shopping trip, where we ate lunch at my favorite funky diner, bought a few things, and got rained on. Again. After that, I sat down with a book and/or pre-schooler while my wife played Dragon Age II.

I’m tired of being wet, but the idea of returning to the usual labors isn’t quite as scary. This may change once I actually get there.