Last week I was able to get away and spend five days at my most favorite place in the world: Madden's Lodge. It's funny going to a familiar place year after year. You're able to see how things have changed for you. At age 24 I was reminded of a moment when my Dad was not much older than I am now, and I was just about five or six. We were up at Maddens and the most amazing thing ever came to the lodge: water balloon fighting. Not the fill your own and throw them at the pesky four year-olds kind of water balloon fighting. Legitimate professional water balloon fighting. To say this was the highlight of my short-term memory years would be an understatement. My Dad promised me we would sling those balloons. Just as soon as he called work. So I waited and waited and watched that phone call go on and on in our cabin's sitting area. Until finally I could no longer wait and watch any longer. I walked up to the spin-around curly cord phone and just hung it up for him. Well, that really did get me out there any sooner. Nor did it make my dinner that evening any more pleasant. But really, why was he tending to work when were at MADDENS?
I've thought back on that moment often-mostly when trying to retrace when I first discovered my powers of conniver and assertion. This year though, when holed up in my pine walled room on my computer, the moment replayed more vividly because I was the one that a sassy five year old to hang it up on me. My vacation, while gorgeous and enjoyable as always, did not have everything else in my life vacated. It's a sure sign of getting older, yes. But not one my five year-old self ever saw coming.
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