Uncategorized | Jessica Van Bommel

Logan the Fish

We won a goldfish last summer. You know the kind, in the little plastic bags at every carnival and fair across America. Well, actually, we won two. My son and daughter each got one. But my daughter’s fish moved on to fishie heaven relatively quickly. She was bummed when she noticed his absence….a month after the fact.

See, we weren’t exactly great fishie parents. After the novelty wore off (i.e., about three days), I was the only one who remembered to drop some flakes in the tank every now and again. And between keeping my kids and my dog alive, and making our lives run semi-smoothly, my brain possesses precious little space for goldfish maintenance.

Yet my son’s fish, which he named after his friend Logan, persisted. He just kept swimming, if you will, in the sad little plastic tank that came home with him from the fair.

Before we left for spring break this year, I successfully packed our bathing suits and phone chargers and medications. But I forgot to make arrangements for Logan. By the time I remembered him, we were already at our hotel in Marco Island, Florida (which is an amazing place, by the way! More about the trip in a later post.). I broke this news to Baylor, who hadn’t thought about poor Logan either. My son wasn’t particularly fazed, but I felt awful. Apparently, at some point in the last 9 months, I had grown attached to the little guy.

I promised Baylor (and myself) that if Logan made it through the next 8 days, I would go to PetSmart when we got home and get him a proper tank, complete with a fish castle to swim through, “and a new friend,” my daughter piped up. And a new friend.

Well, good news – Logan made it. He is now swimming happily in a new 10-gallon tank with some fishie accessories and a new fishie friend, Gracie. I talked to the employees at PetSmart and figured out how best to introduce the fish to their new environment, and I asked which products we needed. I am determined to be a better fish parent.

I have even taken to talking to Logan and Gracie sometimes as I feed them in the morning (because I am still the only one who remembers to do so). This brings my husband much amusement, and he likes to ask if I am going to have another coffee date with the fish sometime soon.

So, maybe I am nuts. But Logan is a survivor, and you have to respect that. And it makes me smile, so there you go! Cheers to Logan – may we all be a little more like him.

I Heart Winter….sort of

I am grateful for winter. Granted, it’s much easier to own this sentiment now that we have very nearly escaped winter’s icy grasp for yet another year. (I mean, I see the piles of snow on the ground, but we did just “spring” forward an hour. It has to be over soon. Right?)

Alright, maybe I don’t exactly love winter. It can be pretty, but it gets a little long, especially in Wisconsin. I don’t ski or own a snowmobile, so, really, after Christmas, the white stuff is of little use to me. And I cannot stand to be cold.

So, um, why live in Wisconsin, you might ask. Fair enough. I ask myself the same question all winter long. In fact, I have often questioned why the first settlers ever stopped here in the first place. I can only imagine that their covered wagons arrived in summer.

Summer in Wisconsin is glorious. I swear, nowhere is the sky bluer nor the trees a more vibrant green than in Wisconsin in summer. The whole world seems to sparkle. For about a minute and a half.

But the truth is, I have claimed Wisconsin as my year-round home, and I will continue to suck it up and deal with the bitter cold and slippery sidewalks, followed by the slushy mud and general ugliness that reveals itself as the snow finally recedes at the end of the season.

I will do this because I simply cannot imagine living any place else – at least until I chuck it all and move to a deserted island after the kids are grown. (Actually, who are we kidding? My kids are true Wisconsinites, and if you listen to my parents, grandkids are way better than kids, so I likely won’t be going anywhere. Ever. Sigh.)

And even though I don’t love winter, I am truly thankful for it. Winter helps me appreciate spring, summer, and fall. If Wisconsin winters weren’t so brutal, 45 degrees wouldn’t feel so balmy come spring (not that I’m one of the crazies who breaks out their shorts as soon as the mercury rises above freezing, but I do get where they are coming from). Without winter, I would not stop quite so often in summer just to soak up the feeling of the sun on my face. And if winter wasn’t looming, we wouldn’t appreciate fall’s fleeting beauty as we pick apples and cheer on the Packers like we do.

I’m not only thankful for winter, but I actually need it. What? Why would I possibly say something like that? Well, I’ll tell you a story. Once upon a time, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, I packed up my car and moved to San Diego. The weather there is nearly always perfect – 75 degrees and sunny year round. There was no winter. There was no spring. There was no fall. And it slowly drove me nuts. My brain didn’t understand how to mark the passage of time without the change in seasons.

See, in my head, each year is like a big circle, and each season is a quadrant (Kudos to Ryan for the spot-on depiction of the inner workings of her mama’s mind!) That’s us in the little yellow car, moving around the circle with the passing of each day. When I lived in San Diego, where the weather didn’t change, it was as though my car got stuck in summer. Except it was a burgundy Saturn instead of a yellow Game of Life car.

It was my own personal Groundhog Day (the fabulous movie, not the ridiculous holiday). It literally felt like time wasn’t passing. It made me so crazy that I actually applied to law school and fled across the country to New York City after just a year of Southern Cali living. I suppose maybe I could have gone to Maine to put even more distance between myself and San Diego, but then again Maine didn’t have any law schools that interested me.

Well, as much as NYC has to offer, it turned out my heart was in Wisconsin. So I eventually landed back in the frozen tundra, right where I started. And I’m so very thankful for that.

Almost as thankful as I am that it’s nearly spring. 🙂