No Commute During The Holidays
Commuter IV
By Cynna Woo
No commute for me this weekend because of the holidays, I’m enjoying a day off from work watching morning television in bed while trolling the Internet. I like reading newspapers online and shopping for Christmas. It is so much easier than wandering aimlessly through department stores searching for something to jump out at me.
My recently married daughter is student teaching and thus without income. She announced “we’re doing a budget Christmas this year,” does this mean I get to cut back as well? No, that’s not the spirit! I’m finally in a position where it doesn’t take until June to pay off Christmas. Now that my children are adults and give me decent lists that don’t ask for a car or a pony, I enjoy shopping for them and their boyfriend/girlfriend.
Oh that’s right; I am a mother-in-law now, something that will take time getting used to. I feel my every utterance is now shared with “him”. I must learn not to be needy and to share my daughter with another family. Thank God her “him” is the perfect person for her. Both my son and daughter have chosen to love someone I love as well, who could ask for more? (although I always do want more). In the future I’ll brace myself for the Christmas morning when it will be only the two of us. But this year everyone will be at my house on Christmas Eve. All my nieces and nephews are teenagers and have stopped jumping on the furniture. We’ll play games, open gifts and have fun being together. On Christmas morning, I’ll be mom and mom-in-law, waiting for the newlyweds to come down the stairs for coffee in front of the tree.
Tonight it is my husband who will make the commute, much more difficult because so many more people travel back from Philadelphia to New Jersey every day. This living apart can be trying. However, It does have a few positives and anticipation of my Tom’s arrival on a Friday night is one of them.
We have a little dinner when he arrives, and afterwards we walk over to the Village of Smithville, right across the street. Smithville is an old fashioned village of quaint little shops and an Inn that serves dinner and hosts weddings and events. It sits on a lake with paddle-boats ducks and giant white geese. There are 25 lighted trees floating on the lake. Music plays and the trees change colors to tunes by Mannheim Steamroller and The Carpenters. We are often the only ones observing this spectacular and I add my own interpretive dance if no one is looking. Tonight being Friday, there will probably be others about, celebrating the Christmas season by dinning at the Inn and strolling among the shops. Fred and Ethel’s, is a tavern and eatery in the village. It offers live music on Friday evenings. Who will it be tonight, the staring bartender-the one who never seems to notice an empty glass, or the perky girl bartender who serves peanuts with a flair? Either way it’s our own little “Cheers” and I love it.
The Commuter is a column by Cynna Woo. She has been commuting between South Jersey and the Philadelphia suburbs for the last four years. When she first landed her great job as an academic advisor in N.J. she did not mind the drive. But, driving 65 miles one way grew old very fast. She shortened the drive time by buying a condo in Smithville, NJ. She now lives like a single person during the week and commutes to her “big house” and husband of 35 years, on the weekends. She would like to share her commuter musings, while driving. She will actually write them down when she gets home, because she hasn’t perfected writing while driving quite yet. Cynna enjoys reviewing movies, show tunes, listening to Howard Stern, speaking in french, collecting mermaids, hiking, and spending quality time with her amazing family.
