Today marks the first full day of spring. I should feel more cheerful, and I would except for the snow that's falling. The lead-gray skies have provoked a bought of SAD, which was suspended temporarily when I went to book group last night. The snow is inevitable—it is, after all, mid March in Minnesota.
John, the boys, and I are meant to drive to So Dak to celebrate Easter with my parents. I have already told John that I'm not keen to drive in the current sloppy, slushy turning to icy driving conditions but he has yet to take me seriously. My life is in his hands, and I completely trust him—until he hits his 7 p.m. slump and drives us into a ditch. I also mentioned to the boys that I'd like to wait until tomorrow morning to make our drive, but they view this idea as a betrayal of the grand plan in which John drives and I read to the family.
Am I being a big baby? I don't think so...I just don't feel like putting my life, and the lives of the people I most cherish, at risk.
Regardless of when we leave town, we are spending the weekend in Watertown, SD, which means packing as if we were going to be stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean. Actually, this analogy isn't far from the truth. There is not a gosh darn thing to do in Watertown. To be fair, the best things to do in Watertown—such as golfing and swimming in the lake or at the new, awesome water park— involve warmer, drier weather. Since my parents don't believe in providing us with activities or entertainment and sort of treat our visits as an afterthought, we like to bring our own amusement.
For this trip I'm packing the following:
~ a few books I've already started and would like to finish (From the Mixed-up Files ... and the second book in Donna Leon's series)
~ magazines, small stack I've been hording, yikes, including the Vogue from two months ago
~ a puzzle to assemble with the kids
~ cool Dover coloring books we got for xmas, this is mine
~ mommy's box of 64 crayolas
~ laptop, even though there's no wi-fi
~ external hard drive
~ camera
~ boots, hat, mittens for a hike in the park
~ knitting, for when I can no longer concentrate on reading over my mother's yammering
And, of course there's the food:
~ cheese (you cannot get a decent, non-processed chunk of cheese in Watertown; Laguiole, which we're trying for the first time, a truffled pecorino-type cheese, and a few others that I picked up at Whole Foods earlier this week)
~ wine (there's serviceable wine to be found in Watertown, but my dad, who claims to love wine and who has drunk from some exquisite bottles in France, refuses to spend more than $3.99 on bottle so we bring a few good but not expensive selections)
~ crackers, to eat with the cheese
~ Easter candy for the kids' baskets, because I couldn't resist
~ B.T. McElrath truffles for the adults' "baskets, because I shopped at the Golden Fig yesterday and couldn't resist
We'll drive slow and treat ourselves well. By the time we return to the Twin Cities, the latest snowfall will have melted. Soon, we'll be back to the business of spring.
Happy, happy weekend!
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