It's All Relative: What I Did on My Summer Vacation.....

Do you remember how in school, every Fall when school started you were asked, "what did you do on your summer vacation?"

I used to love those questions. As a kid, most summers were spent traveling thanks to the generosity of the the World Back and it's benefits package of the late Eighties and Nineties. I would regale teachers with our travels and confound many of my classmates who didn't understand why sleep away camp was not a part of my summer vacation.

The beginnings of carrot soup- he likes mushy things.

I go back to work full time on Monday. The summer has allowed me the opportunity to work from home or the hospital. I have been able to spend the days with Pierre-Marie force feeding him and checking his temperature. Late nights at the ER, middle of the nights request for pain killers and early morning check ins about night sweats have not bothered me since alarm clocks and schedules had a flexibility not usually afforded someone who works in a school. But Monday changes all of that. It's not only the idea of losing some flexibility it's the idea of answering the question, "How was your summer?" from the many well meaning people who have traveled around, seen friends and family and had a moment to relax and rejuvenate.

Late nights in the ER

How do I answer that without making them or us uncomfortable and awkward. See, as you know, our summer has been one of hospital visits, anxious evenings, late night trips to the ER, visits to the pharmacy, force feeds and night sweats. But no one really wants to hear that. So I've been working on the spin for it all. So allow me to try it out on you.....

How was my summer, you ask? Well it was different from most.

View from 519

We had the opportunity to see some amazing vistas.and meet new friends and try different foods. We watched a bunch of movies, and I read a ton of books and made some headway into a few of my knitting projects. But most of all I got to spend the summer with my best buddy doing things we love to do and appreciating the moments we have together.

The hats I'm making for the nurses

Hopefully this will come off with little sarcasm and we can move on to more exciting topics such as what they did this summer. And I'll promise to listen and be interested and ask all the right questions.

More than anything this summer has taught me the value of the questions we ask, how we ask them and when we do. I suppose I have regrets over the questions I have posed in the past and the manner in which I have asked them, but I think I am more regretful of the questions I didn't ask.

So, let me start....