There's a Party in My Pity and You're Invited

My second summer in the Midwest is winding down, and now I recognize what will surely be an annual wave of Sunday Night Angst. It will only intensify when the kids are in school full time, I'm sure. But with the advent of four-morning-a-week preschool just three weeks away, it's intense enough right now.

Suddenly I'm aware of a long list of things I wanted to do with Nutmeg this summer, and I'm scrambling to fit it all in. Visit our local children's museum -- did it this morning! Visit the local drop-in parent support center -- did it yesterday! Go to the local library and get cards -- did it a few days ago! Sign up for ballet class, a baby class for fall, tour the local Y, go to the Brookfield Zoo, go to the free Wiggleworms classes at Millennium Park, swim in Lake Michigan, see one of the free movies in Grant Park, have my cousin and her family visit while her husband is on break from teaching school -- well, I don't think we will fit in all those things, but we'll try for many of them. And tomorrow night we're doing something I hadn't even thought of: attending the Kenosha County Fair.

The super awesome news is the stuff I found out in the last two days' rushed adventures: the drop-in parent center is so amazing that I wish I'd checked it out the second we moved in, and the museum is a homey little, very fun place that will be a real asset when the weather turns nasty. I bought a family membership for a hundred bucks, which would pay for itself in ten visits. But wait, there's more! I got four guest passes and reciprocity to the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier and the Kohl Children's Museum (which Nutmeg loves) and a bunch of others. It's a good deal, but now that I looked at the other museums' Web sites, I wish I had gotten a membership at the Kohl instead, because that would have gotten me member cards for four adults instead of for two for the same price, with all the same reciprocity.

Oh well, we're supporting the local museum, which is the one that it's most important to us. I'd hate to see that one close.

Our summer ends abruptly this year on August 31, when we head out to Tucson for a dear friend's wedding. Preschool begins the day after we return. Speaking of our Tucson trip and anxiety, dear lord, I have to buy a new bathing suit because the wedding includes a pool party. I wonder if the joys of end-of-season sales will balance out the anguish of end-of-season picked-over merchandise.

I have so many problems! Would you like to come to my pants party? I mean my pity party?