I can't believe...

that it already June 17. Where has the time gone? That statement makes me feel old...didn't our parents say that? Now we say it. I suppose because we too are getting old...well, older.

Today was one of those perfect spring days. I loved watching the sun dance with the clouds. I also thought about the time going quickly and not wanting summer to slip away...it sometimes has a tendency to do that when you work retail hours. As I type that, I realize that the hours are not the cause...it is me. I don't feel sometimes that I am present in all areas of my life because I get so drawn into the stuff with work.

I had a conversation with a friend a couple of days ago about his job. He is a store manager for Subway and is REQUIRED to work at least 50 hours per work. I was taken back. He is okay with it because of good benefits etc. But what the heck is wrong with us when working fifty plus hours a week has become a requirement and more and more a norm?

I remember the first time I went to Hilton Head with Connie and Kay. We had gone to a bar at Marriott Hotel that was on the beach and met a Dutch couple who were on vacation. They had started in Detroit because they had gone to see Bruce Springsteen and had worked their way around the country to South Carolina. They had been on vacation for about three weeks when we met them and were traveling for a couple more weeks before going home. Their five weeks of vacation was the norm in the Netherlands. They were slightly appalled when we told them we generally only got two weeks a year.

I recently figured out that I have about six weeks of vacation time accrued which actually was a bit of a shock. I have also been advised that one should use your sick time first because if you leave a company then they would have to pay you your vacation time...which of course played into my insecurity issues which have been raising their ugly little heads lately but that's a whole other blahblah.

I will be happy to get my two weeks of vacation this year but more importantly, I want to DO things this summer.I don't want the season to slip away unmarked.

Here is my Ten List of Things I Want to Do this Summer.
1. Dig out my roller skates. The streets are pretty smooth in our neighborhood so I think that potential for damage could be minimal.
2. Plant pumpkins.
3. Get a croquet set and use it. We could have the Croquet X-Games on our lawn...huge tree roots in the front yard.
4. Have a slumber party.
5. Read Tolstoy in my bathing suit.
6. Find a pool to read Tolstoy at in my bathing suit.
7. Ride my bike way more. My streamers want the wind in their plastic.
8. Perfect a Southern accent and get a hand held fan in preparation for the Dog Days of Columbus humidity. I would then be able to use both when we...
9. Start Sunday open house cookouts.
10. Lay in the grass and look up at the clouds or the stars and just dream.

Ooooohhhh...so that's how they did that!

We got our stimulus check in the mail yesterday.(YEAH!) We thought from what we had been mailed that we would be receiving $1200 (BIGGER YEAH!) The check was for $1013 and change (slight disappointment...let's not be greedy) but I was confused by the difference.

Today we get the letter of explanation.

We owed taxes last year because of Bob's paper route...had been paying all year...and the difference in the check was the $186 and change that we still owed. Fine and good...our debt is paid and that is another YEAH!!

HOWEVER...the letter of explanation referred to our check for the amount of $1013 and change as "an overpayment of taxes from 2007". Call me dumb... but what does that mean? Did we really over pay on our taxes and we are going to be getting another check to stimulate us? Of course not because this check was clearly marked as 2008 stimulus check.

My observations about receiving said check:
1. Happy to have it because now we can buy a real couch for the Boy's Room and make it a better place to watch football. I have been told that it dampens the atomosphere of watching football games when you are drinking a beer sitting on a daybed covered in an antique crocheted bedspread.

2. We might actually be able to put something in a savings account...I have heard tell of them.

3. A hell of lot of people in the USA must have overpaid on their taxes.