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thedaveandkimmershow · 4 months ago

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Looking back at last month I'm reminded again how, in that initial act of interrogating my memory, it seems like we did nothing.

After all, the peak of our September experience rises to such heights that everything not of that rarified air seems irrelevant. It really was one whopper of a vacation celebration.

And the rest of the month?

Well, it was not nothing. We weren’t waiting around for cool things to happen, pining for something interesting to do. We were surfing the waves of our professional and personal lives on a daily basis. Nothing unique there. Nothing special. Just the relentless Now in which we actively live.

In fact, my September also featured some lovely professional candy. And her September featured the firing up of her fourth semester in her doctoral program.

So with no further ado, here’s a taste of this year’s September.

This is probably not a big deal but for the first couple/few days after it happened.

What happened?

Light rail started running out of Lynnwood.

Meaning?

Meaning one less bus to navigate. No busses at all to the UW. Just the one from downtown to Leschi that before had been Lynnwood to Northgate by bus, Northgate to downtown by lightrail, then downtown to Leschi by bus.

It used to be a bit of a deal.

Now?

Not so much.

So those days after light rail kicked off in Lynnwood were a revelation. And now the commute is reliably, dare I say it…?

Relaxing.

😊

September’s a tent pole month. Always. It has our wedding anniversary right there in the middle and, in the last few years, we’ve taken to Orlando as the means by which to celebrate.

Oh yeah. We make it a BIG deal.

So.

Top of September we’re definitely thinking about the impending trip and the celebration of our nuptials. This year, I spent the week before we left chasing down marriage memories. Not just about the day, mind you, but about what happened after we said “I do”.

Basically, what transpired over the next 32 years.

Congratulations to us, by the way.

We’ve been married 32 years!

HUZZAH!!!

😁😁😁

Now, the way I chose to enter into these memories was to ask a simple question of Younger Me:

What do you think your life's gonna look like in thirty years?

I wanted him to answer the question so we could compare notes: what we expected would happen versus how married life actually played out. You know, house, dog, cars, kids, professions. All the things you imagined or understood would happen. All that you expected to experience upon saying “I do” and setting out in a tiny wooden boat together to sail a deep blue ocean on an adventure. You know it's gonna be an epic story. What you don't know is that all epic stories contain plot twists and villains.

Oof.

So yeah. Careers, house, dogs, cars, kids, long term friendships, relationships, and commitments. Was that the plan?

Some of it in broad strokes, sure. These were assumptions and expectations, though, not business plans. There was a hazy future we assumed would come to pass and very little, in fact hardly any of it happened the way we thought it would or became what we thought it would.

So we audibled.

Like, a lot.

We changed or improvised plans on the fly.

We learned as we went. We figured out goals and plans in real time... we cleaned up our messes, recovered in real time... over time.

In the end, there’s something quite special in making it as far as we have. Certainly strangers who find out how long we've been married express a lot of genuine surprise and appreciation as if we pulled off one helluva high wire act.

Which we kind of have.

Thank God.

😊😊😊

Sunday September 8 we’re on a plane, direct flight to Orlando from Sea-Tac.

In the last few years we've been traveling here on our wedding anniversary week for a Universal Orlando celebration staying at the Endless Summer Dockside. Experiencing Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Volcano Bay (the water park), and City Walk (for our favorite restaurants).

It's all more doable for us. More relaxing. Less rushed.

We have a great time, a lovely time that doesn't demand a further vacation to recover from the vacation we just took.

So we're here again. Taking our show on the road to celebrate our wedding anniversary during what is turning out to be torrential rain week in Orlando.

The torrential rain, by the way, turned out to be a mixed blessing because with our ponchos on, the fat raindrops pounding on us, and the maze of vertical metal rods at the central bus transit center, we were basically forced to navigate that maze with severely limited visibility and Kinmer managed to run into one of those bad boys with her lower ribs on one side.

Not good.

That was the not great thing that happened.

On the flip side, though, the accident forced us to relax the rest of the week.

Take it easy.

Take it slow.

Take it calm.

Take it peaceful.

Take it.

Take it like a vacation.

An actual. Vacation.

So.

We took the entire week easy. Stayed in bed more. Slept in always. Did easy kids rides in Seuss Land. Enjoyed meals out. Savored meals in. Moseyed our way around on those occasions we were out ‘n about. Explored our way in, through, and around Diagon Alley. Explored our way in, through, and around Hogsmeade.

We fully inhaled those experiences.

Paced ourselves reeeeeal slooooow, enjoying all manner of butterbeer frosted and ice cream tasties.

And oh yeah.

We watched a ton of “Madame Secretary”.

I know, right?

How sad for us.

😉

The true highlight experience of our celebration actually happened on our anniversary. During our anniversary evening. It was an experience during which was needed a volunteer and Kimmer seemed, in that moment, like just the person to fill that role.

What was the experience, by the way?

Oh yeah. It was the Horror Make-Up Show at Universal Studios.

Kimmer did not agree that she could possibly be the right choice for this, of course, but she was still game for an experience that included holding a bunch of severed arms in her outstretched arms, a jump scare at the table on which she was to place those arms, a demonstration of Kimmer’s best horror movie scream, a ton of banter on stage with the two Universal make-up artists during which her main responsibility was to tee up laughs for her hosts, and—

Oh yeah.

Having her own arm sawed off.

One more time:

Having her own arm.

Sawed.

Off.

It was actually quite convincing, by the way, topped with a thoroughly fascinating and satisfying explanation of how the effect is accomplished.

Later in the show, long after she was sent back to her seat, they had her back up again to demonstrate remote technology allowing her to control the movements of a giant animatronic werewolf.

Of course the thing turned out to not be animatronic at all and lunged out at the hosts just as soon as Kimmer was on her way back to her seat.

Best thing?

For a second there she thought maybe I set the whole thing up ‘cause I know how mortified she is to be called in for anything.

Let alone having her arm sawed off.

😉

Quick thing: because we were taking the week easy, we had even more time for random conversations with ride share drivers, hotel staff, wait staff at the various restaurants at which we dined, couples and families on the shuttle bus to and from our hotel, along with random families, especially the one with whom we shared a bunch of time standing in line to catch the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross Station outside Diagon Alley.

I'm still amazed at this tradition into which we seemingly and easily slipped. After all, we used to always do Disney. But we're over that now. There are plenty of reasons I could probably conjure for why that is. I think the biggest one is Harry Potter which is funny because we weren't fans of the franchise even six months before we went the first time.

Now, of course, we're hooked.

Next year we'll probably need to adjust our schedule because a third theme park is opening at the top of next year that features a massive Ministry of Magic experience. That, plus the fact that, because Universal's Horror Nights is such a hit, the experience was extended into September where we had to compete for time in the parks with the throngs of nighttime revelers.

First or second week of November we're thinking now. During that throttling back of park guests after the Halloween extravaganza but before Thanksgiving which seems to be a starting gun for everyone to return to the parks.

😕

Back home again as of Saturday night the 14th, Halloween was soon to be upon us.

Wait. What?

Okay so first stop along this train of thought is that, if you ask Kimmer, she's pretty much gonna say we never even had summer this year. And when she's feeling just the tiniest bit generous, she'll say “okay fine. We had three weeks.”

So Fall was really no surprise to her. We've pretty much been Fall-ing it most of the “summer”.

The Halloween vibe, though, really hit us on the 21st at Value Village because for sure there it's Halloween with all the displays and costumes and horror make-up, and the full spectrum of costume accessories.

We were actually there that day because on Tuesday October 22 Linzy’s Dream Patrol is headlining the Sunset Tavern in Ballard and officially announced it as a costume event.

So yeah.

We were starting the hunt for our costumes at Value Village because we are definitely suiting up for the Dream Patrol show that's barely over a week from Halloween.

👸👺👻👽🎃

By the way, Kimmer found this silver dress (think Jetsons) while we were poking around Value Village and quickly hit on her costume idea:

Somehow the Eiffel Tower.

Not sure how that was gonna work out. She did temp an Eiffel Tower pattern out of silvery semi transparent material and set it on our dining room table to consider it for a bit.

In the end, she figured out something completely different.

And very cool.

🤨🤔🤩🥳

Wednesday September 25 we're at the Palisade restaurant ‘cause Linzy has the first of four gigs there that night and we're taking the opportunity to celebrate our wedding anniversary (32 years,.HUZZAH!!!) at the very restaurant at which we dined after we departed the church at which we were married.

No joke. From the church to Palisade restaurant is how that evening went.

And here we were. All over again. Dining and toasting our good fortune as our daughter serenaded the entire restaurant.

A few days later, another celebration: Rachel's birthday for which Kimmer cooked up a feast, I cleaned and shopped and set the table, and we all gathered for the occasion, our girls and their significants. ☺️

Turned into a sweet and sometimes baffling trip down memory lane.

That's right. We replaced the Christmas tree you grew up with.

Sue us.

🤣🤣🤣

Okay.

The back half of September is when it officially happened.

Yeah.

Someone mentioned the holidays. You know, the holiday season. As in Halloween Thanksgiving Christmas, everything inbetween, and everything a bit into the New Year.

The holiday...

Season.

Just like that, they invoked the end of the year. The closing days of 2024.

Around the same time, I popped in the soundtrack to "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" and just let it play 'n play 'n play.

It fit perfectly with the weather outside. Because, you know…

It’s Fall.

😕

I mentioned in the beginning that the new quarter for Kimmer’s doctoral program fired up in September. It actually started the week we were in Orlando and, with us taking it easy, she managed to keep up enough, complete enough of her assignments that she was able to hit the ground running as soon as we were home again.

As for me, work’s getting pretty tasty what with all the whiz bang knick knacks and doo dads we have at our beck and call to solve challenging creative problems and, in the absence of actual problems… we can do some actual magic.

Actually, solving those problems involves magic, too.

The last ten days of the month involved putting some of those tools to good use on a project that served as a trial run for a doc I’ll cut as soon as October hits. In fact, I started that project on the last day of September and I'm pretty into it as we speak.

😀��

That’s all for our September this year.

October’s not being much of a transition since, of course, we pretty much embraced it halfway through September.

I pretty much figure that Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin soundtrack is gonna carry us most of the way into November.

Onward!

🤨🤪😊

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