Things to do this weekend, the Middle-Aged Lady Edition!

You know what I would love. I would love to be Emily Burnham! She has the coolest job, traveling around the state and discovering all the fun things for the rest of us to do! (Also, I’ve always believed I was really destined to be a redhead)! Every weekend starts with me checking her blog to find out what fun things are going on, and then coming up with excuses why I am too tired, too old, or too busy to attend them all . . .

Ah, to be young again and have Emily’s energy. But for us middle-aged folks the weekends are a little less ambitious. Or at least our ambitions often include things like getting the ironing done for work the next week, or finding time to get to the grocery store and maybe cook a whole meal. Some of you will also be mowing and pruning. However, I’ve discovered one of the best things about living in a downtown apartment is that I don’t have to mow and my weeding and pruning, in my containers, only takes about a minute! This leaves me more time to make that trip to Rite Aid to pick up my prescriptions and at some point I’ve got to find a stamp somewhere for the birthday card I need to mail. I know, it’s so exciting, it’s all you young people can do to contain your jealousy!

This May, I also decided it was a good idea to take, not one, but two English classes in my continuous efforts towards my long sought after, but not too far off, Bachelor’s Degree. Clearly this was an ill-timed hormone driven decision but it’s too late for me to get out of it now. These are “condensed” summer session classes, 14 weeks boiled down into four. So this weekend will also find me reading “Jane Eyre” and other assorted tales and writing, essay after essay after essay.

This weekend will also contain a long planned for celebration for two of my daughters. Middle Daughter graduated with her Associate Degree from Community College in Minnesota and Oldest Daughter graduated with her Master’s Degree in Public Policy from University of Southern Maine. A ladies evening has been planned that will start at The Penobscot Theater’s production of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” (I have a feeling this will be something I, in particular, really enjoy)! We will then move on to dinner and cocktails downtown, possibly joined by a brother or two, until Mom is too tired and needs to go to bed. The Foley girls and company will then be on their own to enjoy the nightlife. (Bangor, consider this your warning, good luck).

At some point this weekend I will also find time to put up my shiny new John Schneck for Maine House District 16 sign! If my schedule or energy level permitted, I would be knocking on your doors telling you why he is the guy for Bangor but since it doesn’t I’m cyber-knocking from here. Please check him out on Facebook and I’ll have more news for you on him as the campaign progresses!

Sunday morning usually finds me sleeping-in but since there’s stuff going on I may rise a little earlier. My favorite Sunday morning activity is sitting in my window with its wonderful view downtown, drinking my coffee, and listening to all the church bells around the city (knowing I do not have to be there or anywhere in particular by any particular time)! I will forego extending that activity too long in order to be dressed and ready for “Isaac’s Italian Lemonade Stand” in West Market Square from 10-2pm and the long awaited Bangor Farmer’s Market from 12-3pm in Abbot Square.

If you have never met Isaac, he is the delightful young son of a local family. Isaac’s family adopted him, when he was very small, from Haiti. Currently, he is an only child but is on a mission to change that by raising the adoption fees for a new sibling himself! Please stop by and meet him if you get a chance! The whole community, including several downtown businesses, will be there to support him and I guarantee it will be worth the price of the lemonade!

By Sunday afternoon, needing to rest my weary bones for a full week’s worth of work at one of the busiest places on the UMaine campus, where we build things and then break them or blow them up, and needing to complete still more homework, I will head back to my humble abode with vegetables and baked goods in hand!

While Bangor’s Social Director Emily is wrapping up the last of her exciting event filled weekend, surely someplace fabulous with champagne in hand, Sunday evening will find me in my PJs by 8 pm, curled up on my couch with the next chapter from my British Women’s Literature Class and a cup of tea . . . decaf.

It’s a glamorous middle aged life, I know, but someone’s got to live it!

 

Karen Foley

About Karen Foley

Karen Foley, has successfully been writing her blog for the BDN since May 2011. By successful, she means a few people read it, and she has not been sued, stalked or fired since starting it.