Project: ‘MAYhem’

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor I t’s that time of year again. Once the calendar flips over from April to May, I know that it means my life is going to get a whole lot busier.

I assume most people pretty much have the same important life events that I do each year, but hopefully you’ve got yours pretty spread out. I do not. Sure, we’re all busy during that Halloween-to-New-Year’s stretch, but I’ve got a couple very busy months elsewhere on the calendar.

The first one comes in February. Just when I’ve settled into a post-holiday routine, February comes waltzing in. During February, I’ve got my wedding anniversary, Valentine’s Day, my oldest son’s birthday and my youngest son’s birthday. That all coincides with two busy events in my job duties, namely Black History Month and our annual “Progress” edition, both of which send me all over the county running down news stories. It has gotten a little easier since the boys are grown now and don’t really have birthday parties and presents and all that to worry with.

But then there’s May. Yep, May is still a whirlwind of stuff. It all starts with my wife’s birthday on the 6th. We got a jump on that this year, taking a trip to Six Flags last weekend, complete with requisite stop at Lambert’s for some “throwed” rolls. Oh, and then it was right into Mother’s Day this past Sunday, and once you factor in all the mothers that includes, we were here and there and everywhere. And yesterday was my Dad’s birthday, and we all went over there for his big 77th birthday blowout … well, we had meatloaf and birthday cake, so maybe “blowout” is a bit of an exaggeration.

But you know what’s not an exaggeration, in terms of a blowout? When your baby girl is turning 16!!! In addition to making me feel super old, her “sweet sixteen” is scheduled to be a hootenanny (Is it hip and cool to say “hootenanny” these days? Was it ever?). Over the years, we have been pretty hit-or-miss on the awesomeness level when it comes to her birthday. I’d guess that for every skating rink party or girls’ night mani-pedi party there have been three or four, “Happy birthday! Here’s your cake …” celebrations, but she never really cared much either way.

Until this year, apparently. Yep, about six months ago, she announced that for her milestone birthday celebration, she wanted to have a seafood boil out at her grandparents’ house in the country for her and a few of her friends. We didn’t see any real issue with the idea and gave her the thumbs up. Well, we didn’t know that “a few of her friends” would eventually blossom into, at last count, 23 friend and family. We also could not have predicted at the time that the price of things … especially food … and particularly seafood … would skyrocket along with everything else in the world. But here we are. I mean, we’re still going to do it, but I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to enjoy myself knowing the price tag.

I guess she’ll only turn 16 once, right? So, yeah, this weekend we’re loading up church friends, softball friends, school friends and all and taking them out for a day of food, fun, games and general merriment, so if you see me dragging around town next week, you’ll know why. Oh, and it’s not like that’s the end of my busy month. There’s an election coming up, don’t you know? That’s always a long, long night because the polls don’t even close until 7:30 p.m., and then all the polling machines have to be brought to the civic center and all the votes have to be added up … and then all of the results have to be taken back and I have to report and type them all up.

The very next week is Memorial Day weekend, and sure, it’s cool to have the three-day weekend, but my wife’s family has a huge family reunion that weekend, and since we haven’t had one since 2019 due to a certain virus I’m sure you’re all familiar with, this one will probably be even bigger than normal. And sure, the Monday off will be cool, but that always means having to do extra work on the days leading up to it so I can be off.

Oh, and it’s graduation time! So, congratulations to all the different Class of 2022 seniors and all that, but it also means it’s time to go around and get all the important and relevant information from all the schools for our special Graduation 2022 section. It probably sounds like I’m complaining (and maybe I am) but it’s mostly fun and rewarding to do all that stuff (even the work-related stuff), so I should probably shut up about it.

It will be nice, though, when June gets here …