Everything All at Once 8/25/2024

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

I cannot promise you a great deal of quality or quantity in today’s blog. It is a time of year that is full of, well, quite frankly it feels like it is the time of year that absolutely everything is happening all at once.  I even have a bit of extraordinary occurrences going on this week which could make what you find here even less than usual.  The sneaky clouds of business are somewhat overcasting my sunshine of creativity and the time in which to make said creativity into something that is hopefully coherent.  Today I come to you with a basically chat. Let’s pretend we’re good friends, sitting over our beverage of choice and having a catch up about life, liberty and the pursuit of filling our free time.

First off, I mentioned extraordinary occurrences. My husband and I are traveling to Atlanta this weekend. Yes, it’s the big city and yes, we will do our best to navigate it to the best of our ability as the rural folk that we are. I mean, both of us have been in metropolitan areas before but if it isn’t your norm, traffic and crowds are a bit outside of the comfort zone. And if you know anything about driving in Atlanta, or have ever heard anything about driving in Atlanta, or know anyone who has ever heard anything about driving in Atlanta, then you know that is it is a heinously chaotic and downright dangerous experience.  I will admit that we are attempting to be safe (or perhaps clever) and will only have to drive to one dinner and have arranged our accommodation close enough to all the other activities in which we will be partaking so that we can easily walk. There is another thing rural folk are unfamiliar with. When you are as far out in the country as we are, walking to do things is just not an option because said things are not even remotely close enough for that.

One aspect of this anniversary trip that might be a tad unique is actually one little tidbit that has been a standard feature in my marriage.  I do get that this detail will be fascinating to some and agonizingly ludicrous to others but, it is our story for better or for worse. (Ha, see what I did there?)  My marriage has had its major occasions scheduled around, well, major sporting events. We got married on a Friday before college football season began because doing so on a Saturday in that time frame would just not do. Our honeymoon was spread out over the course of several months and several trips, all of which were focused around football games of our favorite team and its travels. Yes, it did manage to get us to some lovely vacation spots, but the games were what everything revolved around.  Now some fellows may think that makes me a rather amazing wife to focus a wedding, a honeymoon and even now an anniversary trip around sports.  While I hate to argue with such sentiment, actually I just happen to love college football, so it worked out well for me too. Now this weekend revolves around professional baseball which isn’t technically my cup of tea, but I am excited to go anyway just because it’s something I’ve never done and who knows, perhaps live in the stadium I will become a fan.

I suppose now I have told you a bit about what is going on with me at least this weekend. At this time of year in general there are all sorts of things going on with kids back in school which leads to homework, school events, fundraisers and the like.  There is one of my most favorite busy aspects beginning and that is all stages of the aforementioned football returning. This means going to games. This means watching games at home on television. This means Saturdays that are booked solid from the time we get up to the time we go to sleep watching our favorite teams of course, but also pretty much any other school play.  This means having friends and family over to add those two “Fs” to the other two of food and football which is equivalent in its gloriousness to attending a game in a packed stadium.  While you may not have the crowd noise or a jumbotron, I assure you that in my house there is just as much fanaticism and if I do say so myself, the concessions are far better and certainly cheaper.

Life is a lot right now. And while I will admit that I definitely complain about having too much going on, for the most part it is all good.  It is the kind of busy that, while it does wear you out, you get to look forward to those loaded occasions. You know you’ll finish those days having had a lovely time with all your favorite people doing your favorite things. Now yes, you will collapse into bed and sleep like the proverbial rock when the day is done but you will do so with a smile on your face. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go make sure I’ve packed everything shy of a pith helmet that I need for my anniversary foray into the urban jungle.