Adiós al verano

I stood in the driveway yesterday afternoon while Nathan retrieved the mail.  We were heading out to see a movie and I sighed.  It was Thursday, the second to last day of our vacation together.

“It really does feel like the end of summer, doesn’t it?” I asked.

He nodded.  ”Yeah, it does.”

Today is the last day of our vacation and I have not accomplished one quarter of the things I had on my to-do list.  I had a lot of fun not doing those things, though.  Instead of doing things I had to do, I did things I wanted to do.  I spent a day on an island and snuck onto the porch of a fancy hotel.  I had lunch out with my mother, saw a movie and had lunch out again today with my husband.  I visited the book store, bought my father’s birthday gift (a task that wasn’t on my to-do list but probably should have been) and cleaned my daughter’s room.  That last task wasn’t so fun, especially since she undid most of our hard work in less than 30 minutes.

Summer is coming to an end, and nothing says “end of summer” more than the beginning of a new school year.  Next week I’ll be treated to a sea of new faces as the incoming freshmen move into their dorms and the week after that I’ll be going back to school myself.  I received an email from the professor of my class that asked us all to have “Hamlet” and The Great Gatsby read by our first class meeting on the 27th.  Hey, I’ve already read ten Shakespeare plays this summer.  What’s one more?

I don’t want summer to end.  I don’t want to give up the sun, the light breeze that passes through my living room and the fresh vegetables at the farmers markets.  I want to watch my daughter run through the sprinklers and sit out on my deck to eat dinner.  I want time to stand still, and today would be a great day for it to do just that.