Rejecting Reality

You know, I have never had a lot of luck with Spring Break. When I was in high school and too old to be satisfied with laying around in my pajamas all day watching soap operas, I begged and begged and BEGGED my parents to let me go away for Spring Break somewhere. I mean, with all the vast experience I had at the ripe old age of 15, I would have been okay- right?

Uh, yeah.

So you'd think that when we moved to Palm Springs after I graduated from High School, I would have had had plenty of opportunities to frolick in the sun and party it up with college kids from all over the nation.

Uh, no.

That year happened to be the year that Mayor Sonny Bono decided to put an end to the infamous Palm Springs Spring Break party. He closed down Palm Canyon Dr. and declared the week after Easter "FAMILY FUN WEEK". Hundreds of Spring Breakers drove in to discover a Ferris Wheel and kiddie rides set up on their main drag. Sadly, my bikini clad, baby-oiled self was left standing in the dust as they drove off and continued on to the River.

It didn't matter, anyway. Throughout my years of college, I had this thing called a J-O-B that I had to attend to. I worked through most of my Spring Breaks. There was only one year when I actually went away with a friend to Lake Havasu. It was a good time for a while. We met boys with boats. We met boys with Seadoos. We laid in the sun. We drank. We drank some more. Then we drank even more and THEN I got alcohol poisoning. For a souveinir that year, I ended up bring home some gnarly scars on my knees (that are still there) that I got from crawling all over a rocky beach because I couldn't stand up and walk. Attractive.

Long story short, that pretty much took the wind out of the Spring Break sails for me. (And that's without me telling you the cold cuts story from that trip. Don't ask. Ever.)

This year, my bad juju with Spring Break continued. For starters, Mr. C's district and the 4 nuggets' school district couldn't make things easy and just coordinate their vacation time. Nooooooooo. Mr. C was off the week before the kids. So while yes, this meant that I got to take advantage of him being home with Roo to get some Spring Cleaning done (oh, YAY), it also meant that the following week I would be left alone to entertain 4 kids ages ranging from 2 to 14.
all. by. myself.

Plus, it meant that any spring cleaning I accomplished would be immediately undone by said children in their time "off".

So, what did I do? I planned. I planned a trip to the LA Zoo. I planned a trip to my parents' cabin. I also planned a trip to the water park.

And what did Mother Nature do? She literally peed all over my plans because IT RAINED. It rained on zoo day. It rained on water park day. And yes, it rained down here on cabin day but up there in the mountains it was SNOWING. I don't drive in snow.

Just so you know.

Anyway, end result was we had a pretty boring Spring Break around here. We had one movie day and I tried to let the kids have friends over often. We squeezed in a trip to my grammy's, but all in all, it was a pretty uneventful week.

Then, this morning while the kids were eating breakfast, all that boredom must've really got to me, because something took over my brain and turned the conversation into this:

Me: So what are you going to tell your teacher was your favorite part of your vacation?

PG: I think going to M's birthday party was fun.

Me: Oh yeah! Are you going to tell her about the cake that they had there that was 40 stories high? And how we got to climb all the way to the top of the cake so we could dive off into a pool of strawberry whipped cream frosting?

PG: Whaaaaaaaaat?

Me: You don't remember? I can't believe you don't remember. What about the day that we went to the beach and saw that whale. Remember? Remember how we single-handedly saved it and got it back into the ocean? I bet your teacher will want to hear about that.

PG: Mom, what? No-

Me: And then they threw a parade for us and everyone was cheering and we got to ride on elephants that were borrowed from the circus. You made friends with the trapeze artist and she showed you how to do tricks on the trapeze. You don't remember?

PG: Because it didn't happen! (J, by the way, is looking both doubtful and hopeful that all this really did happen)

Me: It did. Remember? Then while you guys were in the parade, two talent agents from a big Hollywood agency saw you and decided that you had to be in the next Ironman movie. You guys did a whole scene with Ironman. J, you got to to fight Ironman! Tell me you remember this.

J: (grinning) Nooooooooooooo.

Me: (sighing) I don't know why I take you guys to do anything fun. You don't remember a darn thing.

You all think I'm crazy- and I totally am. But my kids know my sense of humor and they know when I'm messing with their heads. They were entertained and left the breakfast table with smiles on their faces. Me, I'm not sure what lesson I may have been teaching them. Maybe that lying is okay? Attempted brainwashing is entertaining? They should embrace insanity?
If anything, what I hope they got is that imagination is key to turning around a boring moment/boring life.

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere."- Albert Einstein

You all have a good night.