When I was a child, I hated fall. Mostly because it meant going back to school. It meant an end to the carefree days of doing whatever the hell I wanted. An end to staying up as late as I wanted and sleeping in as late as I could. No more frolicking in the woods climbing trees or playing baseball in the backyard. No more all-nighters playing Tecmo Bowl on the Nintendo. No more running through the custom-built sprinkler my dad made for us from spare PVC pipes he had lying around in his workshop. No more fun.
I hated school because it bored me. I’m impatient. Explain something to me once and normally I’ve got a handle on it. Droning on about the same thing for 50 minutes drove me bonkers. Having to go home and continue to do schoolwork maddened me. When I got home from school I wanted to fly out through our back door and play. Toss the baseball. Kick the soccer ball. Ride my bike. Shoot some hoops. Play on the leviathan mountain of dirt that the builders had amassed from digging holes in which to build new houses. I wanted to be a freakin’ kid.
Were it not for homework, I’d have been a straight A student. My proclivity for eschewing homework earned me some very shameful grades in school. I had no problem doing schoolwork…at school. Once I was home, however…fuck that. To be quite honest, I still feel the same way. Kids don’t have enough time to be kids. Learning is important, I know, but so is having time to play and let your imagination run wild.
Anyhoo…
These days I look forward to the start of school. It has nothing to do with getting the kids out of my house. I work so I’m not stuck at home with them all day. I look forward to it more because of the season. As I’ve grown older my feelings towards summer have changed. I loathe heat. I hate to sweat. I have allergies. I hate allergies. Spring and summer are the worst seasons for allergies. Autumn is when all those allergenic plants begin to go back into hibernation. The weather cools, meaning I can start eating warm weather food again. Hot chocolate. Chileh! And, most importantly, football is back. NCAA. NFL. Touchdowns. Big hits. Diving catches. Broken tackles. Ankle-breaking juke moves. Football is the one sport I still love to watch.
Going back to school still brings some headaches, though. I no longer attend school, obviously, but my children do (again, obviously). That means clothes shopping. New shoes. School supplies. Filling out an entire tree’s worth of paperwork with information the school already fucking has. The evening after their first day of school my right hand is useless by the end of the night (I hear you snickering, you sick bastards…it’s not because of that). I have twins so I’m filling out packets and packets of information in duplicate. I type everything these days so when I have to actually write (with a pen! how archaic!) my hand cramps up something fierce.
Back to school? I love it. Just not for the reasons most parents do. Bring on the cold weather.
Post inspired by today’s Daily Prompt.
Homework sucks. I would have loved to not fight with my son every fricking day about homework.
I like fall too. Except the shorter days. Can you fix that for me?
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I’ll see what I can do. I think the Emperor and Lord Vader have more important things, like Rebels, to worry about.
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Damn. It’s always something.
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I know. Boo.
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LOL! American Football is like our Rugby here…., some people are just nuts about it…
Hubsy usually gets an injection for the allergies, does wonders. Mine aren’t that bad…..
Mmmm…. warm winter food, now that is a nice one! I make a mean warm chocolate pudding, which comes out with its own sauce it is …delicious….. 🙂
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NOM.
I take Zyrtec for my allergies and it works well, but I still get the sniffles on really bad days. It sucks.
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No idea why you limit chili eating to cold months, but whatever. Back to school is awesome because quiet.
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Well, because if I’m already sweating (summer sucks) I don’t want to make it worse by eating chileh.
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If the chilleh doesn’t make you sweat regardless of the season, you’re not making it right.
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True, but if I’m going to sweat I’d rather do it when it’s not 100 degrees out…
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Totally agreed about homework. I’ve always loved Autumn, though; first because it was the season of my birthday, and later because it came to signify the prospect of change. Out with the old–leaves and patterns–and in with the new! Of course, cooler temps ate also welcome now in my perpetually too warm house.
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Yes! Boo heat!
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Yay Fall. Yay football.
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I know! We’re almost there!
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Don’t you use your left hand for that other business anyway? Hahaha !! Don’t mind me, I am on lack of sleep.
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Hey, sometimes you need a change of pace…
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i hear you, I’m ready for the fall and some cooler weather. I have my eight year old in a different school with no homework. What a relief! Dealing with homework is exhausting, I agree with you, it’s too much. Kids are burnt out by fourth grade now. The school supply list is out of control!
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Here lately each teacher has their own list! It’s ridiculous!
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Oh yeah! I know. It cost a fortune to go back to school.
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YES!
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Techmo Bowl!!! The last video game I played that I truly enjoyed and didn’t find too complicated…
The games now just move way too fast and have way too many buttons for my slow middle-aged brain. I have no patience for them; kinda like you with homework I guess 🙂
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Ha! Between homework and video games, I’ll take video games every time.
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Don’t get me started on the homework thing! I used to have to force my daughter to go to bed and forget about the damn homework because she was so stressed out and it was all busy work. Oh, and the forms to fill out. Craziness!! Good luck to your boys. I hate the cold.
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Really?? I love the cold. Bring it on!
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Sweating really does suck, but I don’t like winter. It turns me into a lazy carb loving sack of mush.
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Lol. Is it winter or the holidays that do that?
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Hmmm…good point.
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I love having the proclivities to eschew stuff. And I just got done writing an actual-in-fact letter which took me about an hour and a half and my WRIST HURTS!
Cold weather sucks. I hate it.
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I LOVE cold weather! Bring on the snow!
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NOoooooooooooooooooooo! ABSOLUTELY THEEE WORST!!!!
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Pfft. I’m gonna stick a snowball in my freezer this winter so I can pelt you with it while you’re here next summer.
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You will be looking at the wrong end of a conniption fit, sir, unless on my visit the weather is sufficiently warm enough that it actually provides welcome relief!
Also YAY! MY VISIT 😀
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I know! And I think a British conniption fit would be hilarious to watch.
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Believe me – it will be
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Yay!
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Wash your mouth out! It’s way too early for the s word!
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It’s NEVER too early for that!
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I like fall too, except for the flu shot I have to get every year! I like being able to use my oven to cook again.
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Yes!
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Hey there, I’m in my fifties now, have grandchildren, and I am still appalled by how much homework kids get. They should be free to run and play after school. I guess that is enough said.
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Yes! Absolutely!
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I have always loved the back to school days. Always. I loved school. I’ve always been to cool schools, where speedy work was rewarded with free time for arts and crafts. We painted murals on our walls. School meant being out of the house with a bunch of kids all day long.
Ok, so summer meant that too, but I had my at-home friends (they all spoke English because of my neighborhood) and I had my at-school friends (who all spoke French because of the school) so the balance was perfect. That and FALL! Most awesome season of the year…
Enjoy this season, and buy some A535 Rub for your hand – for all those forms, And why aren’t they digital? What the hell is wrong with your kids’ school?
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That’s what I wanna know! Why can’t it all be done online??
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It makes no sense! And to repeat every thing year after year… What is wrong with schools and their need for paper waste?
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I wish I knew. Going green is where it’s at!
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I hate homework too. 😦
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It’s the worst.
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I’m actually terrified. Dumb, I know. But whatever. I think I need to drink more. Also, allergies suck. Big huge yucky time. Same with the asshole summertime bugs who fly into my house and make the light explode (for real). I like Colorado cold. Which, is different from DC cold. Better. Bugless. Dry. Nice. Snow and skiing. Also? um yeah, this comment is really fucking dumb. Sorry.
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Terrified of what? Back to school? That’s understandable since he’s going into Kindergarten.
Your comment wasn’t dumb. It made me laugh. Of course, I’m slap happy right now so perhaps me AND the comment are dumb.
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I hear you on this, I love fall. But I always have, even if it meant going back to school. I love how the air smells like Halloween all the time. Oh, and my first experience with a football game was Tecmo Superbowl for Sega. Oh man. You could change all of the attributes to all of your players. I spent an hour going through my entire roster, jacking up all of their stats to 99%, the highest they would go. They were all super at the end. Then I’d play and dominate ever game. I usually won 300+ to under 17, every game. So much fun.
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Tecmo Bowl is one of the greatest things to ever happen to me.
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I can’t tell you the joy I got when I injured three quarterbacks on one team in a game. Oh man, that’s the stuff dreams are made of.
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I love looking at all the back-to-school stationary in the shops. I have some sort of weird stationary fetish type thing going on, I fear.
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Hahaha
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