I'm back. I brought a snack.

Okay, that's a line from my kids' picture book A Splendid Friend, Indeed.  It always makes them laugh, so we say it a lot.

If the past few weeks are any indication of what my summer looks like, I may as well have that experimental surgery that divides me in two because I'm gonna be busy!  To catch up, I've: helped at my son's preschool (last day), helped with my daughter's kindergarten field day, attended kindergarten spring fling, tutored many times, had a kick-ass party (the cops busted it, no shit), entertained out-of-town guests, helped place a favorite friend pet in a new home, obsessed over the end of LOST, attended 2 writing groups and submitted an essay to Skirt magazine (fingers crossed), been elected to the PTA at my daughter's elementary school (because I smoked crack that day), celebrated my Dad's birthday/Mother's Day/my 9th wedding anniversary . . .   .  I'm now gearing up for camps, swim and skating lessons, the beach and oh yeah, my mother lovin' MFA in Buenos Aires (June 21-July 3, biotches!).

My reading material hasn't been blog-friendly either: Don Segundo Sombra, the most machismo-laden, picaresque story I've read.  I could analyze it in detail, but why?  I didn't enjoy it and am still holding out on the last 10 pages until I finish all of my other reading.  Let's just leave it at: cock fights and bull castration.  Done.

I'm now reading the South American section of The Old Patagonian Express, a travel narrative by Paul Theroux.  So far, it's entertaining.  Theroux is not an ordinary tourist.  He has made a living traveling the rails and documenting the experiences.  This journey begins in Boston, runs south from Chicago, into Mexico, Central America and a brief flight from Panama to Bolivia.  He is equally disgusted with the American tourists as he is, often, with the local indigenous people who sell crap at the train stations.  Poverty is ubiquitous.  Somehow, however, Theroux manages to write with humor without sliding into pathos or sounding like an elite dick.

More to come as I chug along.  Tomorrow, I hit the Scholastic Book Warehouse Sale.  Oh, debit card, show some restraint.