This past Monday was the last and final track meet of the year. When we were leaving I had absolutely no feeling in my feet or hands, they were soaking wet. Same with my hair and four layers of clothes. It was precipitous.

Not just Monday but the whole season. Cold. Rainy. Windy. The crazy thing is, even in all that rain and cold – it was really a blast working with the team (120 middle school kids!) and when 3:00 came around today IT FELT SO WEIRD not grabbing my bag of long jump tricks and heading to the track.

In any event – there are lots and lots of things beginning and ending this time of year. Since I love making lists, and because everything is happening at once, I am throwing it all out there.

1. In two weeks I am going to have a gob of teenagers in my backyard celebrating my sons 12th birthday. Yeah, I know 12 isn’t technically a “teen” but he’s earned it. He remembers to take Ana out every two hours, can chop up ANY vegetable with Curtis Stone flair and beats 30 year old men playing Xbox on a regular basis.  So it’s bittersweet, but mostly because I haven’t done much prep for the party and I am afraid it won’t stop raining and we will have to reschedule. The good news is that I had the invites ready a whole month before the party. I am pretty sure that is a first, at least for me.

2. In two weeks school is going to be out for the summer. The plan is to get a pool pass since they just did a HUGE renovation at the new “Aquatic Center” and since we have a membership to the rec center we get a nice discount. The best parts about summer have to be the no homework thing and wearing flip flops. Someday I am going to write a song about picking up dirty socks but by then everyone will have moved on and Husfriend and I’s socks will be the only ones to pick up. Scratch that. I don’t really wear socks. Never did, you can ask my mom.

3. Tomorrow night is the last Orchestra concert of the year. I still can’t believe the school system has such a great program. If we had to pay for lessons like the ones they get , it would cost tens of thousands. A few months ago Harvard did a study on the schools orchestral program and how it works. The teacher is one of my favorites and the kids have a lot of respect for her too. When we couldn’t transport a Bass (they take up the back of a full sized SUV!) she offered to loan us one for class use and we can bring it home for breaks and long weekends.

4. We chaperoned a school dance on Friday. It was great – 200 beach balls being tossed around and lots of screaming and jumping. The funny thing is, no one slow danced. They didn’t even play one slow song. At one point the Principal mis-took one of the Junior DJs for a high school crasher but most of the kids are taller than me so I can see how that would happen. The other thing going on in the gym this week are cheerleading tryouts. I know Phee made it last year but there are more girls trying out this year and I can’t help but be nervous for her. Most of her friends are going on to high school but all I can do is cross my fingers and remind her to smile. The thing I CAN’T do is get the cheers and chants out of my head. Same with the ultra-bassey music they dance to.

5. I am swimming the English Channel.  No, not the REAL one over the Straight of Dover. Just 21 miles over 90 days. A friend of mine is doing it, her Y put together a program. It’s basically 1478 laps of 25 yards each. I went yesterday and did the first 30 laps. It felt really good to swim but I also met some really funny ladies in the Silver Sneakers program and they expect me to be there tomorrow to do another 30. The way I figure it, I need to do about 30 laps at least 4 times a week in order to hit the goal. If I can, I am going to do more each time and get it done faster. We’ll see.

6. Tomorrow is the first CSA pickup! This is the first year we are doing it and we are getting the large basket from Bird Haven’s Farm about 20 miles away. They are delivering to our local farmer’s market. I suspect that this first week will be mostly greens, hopefully some strawberries and fresh eggs. For the record, I have no idea how to cook swiss chard but I am going to find out.

7. I am becoming obsessed with Extreme Couponing. I have only been stockpiling for 2 1/2 weeks but I have enough toothpaste (13 cents!), toothbrushes (also 13 cents!), Creamette pasta (.49), hand soap (.88), cat food (.30), laundry detergent (<$1), cereal (<$1), cheese sticks (<$1), salad dressing (<$1) and countless things I have gotten for free to last the summer, if not longer! My office and laundry room are filled up and I am going to have to find another place to store all of this soon. And the best thing – I haven’t spent any more than I normally would have even with the stock pile. My weekly budget is $130 and on average I am saving about 30-55% per trip. I haven’t used any printable coupons yet since my printer isn’t hooked up to the wireless network, but that is my next project and I have heard that most sites allow you to print a max of 10 of each item from each computer. Again, we’ll see how it all turns out but I am having fun finding things for cheap and it hasn’t taken up more than 2 hours a week so far.

So that’s what’s going on… if I had a soundtrack it would have to be anything from Fitz & the Tantrums like this one…