Sunday, September 30, 2018

Watching Parks and Rec with Melissa

My daughter Melissa and I visited the dysfunctional, loveable, and quite hilarious inhabitants of the fictional city of Pawnee, Indiana nearly every night this past summer. I am talking, of course, about the sitcom Parks and Recreation. The brainchild of actress Amy Poehler, the show pokes fun at the hypocrisy of politics by looking through the satirical lens of the employees of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation department.

Although I had plenty of opportunities to watch the show during it's original run from 2009 to 2015, for some reason I never made the time.

Until the summer of 2018.

It started in May when Melissa returned home after completing her sophomore year of college in Washington, DC, located about three hours from our southern New Jersey home. She had been following the show on Netflix, and now begged her parents to join in on her new obsession.

My husband Bob objected. After all, watching a 20 minute sitcom would pull him away from his favorite pasttime: monitoring cable TV news. However, relentless objections and begging from his wife and daughter became too much for him to bear. He consented to allow us to watch one episode on his big screen TV.

Just one!

So we watched. And to my utter astonishment, I laughed, and laughed, and hungered for more.

But Bob would have no parts of it. He would not allow these mundane interuptions in his TV viewing schedule. Amid our protests he stomped up the stairs, only to return to the living room an hour later with an expression that rang of smug satisfaction.

Seems that Bob, in an effort to keep his family far, far away from his big screen TV, had been tinkering away in our bedroom where he sucessfully installed Netflix on our much smaller TV.

The result?

Melissa and I (along with the cat) could now snuggle on my comfy bed and watch Parks and Rec to our heart's content. And  watch and watch and watch we did. All throughout the summer, during those evening where plans with friends didn't occupy my cherub's time. We grabbed a snack and climbed the stairs, ready to binge three or four episodes of my new favorite show.

But the best part came when we'd had enough for one night, and I turned the TV to off. Melissa could have retreated to her own room, to her own bed, to get lost in a midst of texts with her own friends.

But she didn't.

She stayed in my bed. With me. To talk.

Indeed, throughout her young life, those precious moments that preceded sleep were always set aside for mother/daughter bonding. From reading stories to my pre-school pal, to battling the knots in my fifth grader's long hair, to solving the challenges of teenager angst, I treasured the closeness of our bedtime routine....a closeness I knew would come to an end.

Now, bedtime for me comes no later than 10 pm, while she is wide awake, some 200 miles away, spending time with her boyfriend, or her sorority, or on one of the mandatory homework projects that put a dent in her college fun.

Some nights before I turn off the light, I'll text her a heart, just to let her know she's in my thoughts. I usually don't have to wait too long to hear the familiar ping on my phone, indicating  her heart in return, letting me know I'm in her thoughts too.

It's not much, but it's enough. At least until winter break when we'll once again snuggle in my bed, turn on Parks and Recreation, and pick up where we left off.

Bedtime with Melissa has always been mommy/daughter time, until she went away to school. 



If you like my blog, please tell me in the comments section below. 

2 comments:

  1. I am so astonished to be here and to assemble this marvelous article which is quite thanks for sharing a post with us. By LyricSoUp

    ReplyDelete
  2. We have been ensuring and expanding the existence of rooftop tiles utilizing airless shower hardware for 25 or more years. Our demonstrated, attempted and tried, German made, clear or shading pigmented defensive coatings, will leave your rooftop resembling a fresh out of the box new one for a negligible part of the expense. I compare the utilization of these remarkable coatings as like ensuring the bodywork of your vehicle. We wash our vehicles routinely ourselves or we take them to a carwash. Sooner or later, we'll notice that the paintwork is beginning to look dull and will at that point, eventually, either apply the clean and buff it ourselves or once more, pay for another person to do it. Why clean it?

    Well it will positively look better, water will dot and run off rapidly and bird-droppings or tree sap will at this point don't start to "consume" your paintwork.

    We do this to something that downgrades each time we fire it up (as a rule). Your home (your stronghold) after some time, simply does the inverse! I'm truly glad that you're thinking about rooftop cleaning and would invite the chance to give a free citation to you. On the off chance that you like and simultaneously we can give a citation to ensuring your now extremely clean rooftop (however not secured) from the components.

    I'm not going to talk "over your head" about the specialized determinations and cycles of these dazzling defensive coatings, yet know this:Once we have cleaned and taken out the greenery, lichen, and green growth from your rooftop tiles and before the utilization of either a reasonable or shaded defensive covering, our master project worker will place another tip into his shower weapon. We just utilize the market-pioneer for our tips. Graco tips are made out of the greatest grade of tungsten carbide, the most rough safe material utilized in the assembling of airless shower tips.

    All shower tips will wear with typical use. All coatings contain solids that are rough some more than others. Utilizing a well used tip will bring about a sketchy completion, since when a tip wears, the size of the tip opening increments and the fan width diminishes. This powers more passes to cover the surface prompting a break in the ideal conveyance design. Consolidating the right Graco splash tip with our weapon assumes a major part in assisting us with making the expert completion your rooftop covering position requests. Not exclusively does the tip decide how much liquid will leave the weapon when our project worker pulls the trigger, the splash tip likewise decides how wide a shower fan the firearm will make. Our worker for hire is additionally watching the tip for any indications of obstructing We just utilize Graco's reversible tips. With a reversible tip, he can without much of a stretch clear tip obstructs by basically turning the tip 180 degrees to the perfect position and afterward setting off the sprayer.


    Phone: 020 3929 3815

    business email: info@roofanddrivewaycleaning.co.uk

    Website: https://www.roofanddrivewaycleaning.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete