Story for the Week
Corinne officially passed from childhood to adulthood on her last birthday (Adulting Looks Good on You). We all know that turning 18 doesn’t equate to maturity, but maturity also doesn’t mean you have to act your age every day. Even at the ripe old age of 50-something, I have moments when I feel and act like a kid…many of them with Corinne. Age IS just a number after all.
Many of my act-like-a-kid moments are memorialized on Snapchat in Corinne’s private “Mumsy Nancy” story. (Thank goodness Snapchat deletes posts after 24 hours.) She likes to capture me in silly moments and post them for a select group of friends, and apparently, I have quite the following. One day while we were picking up dinner in the Culver’s drive-through, one of Corinne’s friends “recognized” me. He said he follows “my” story and that he’s a fan. I am still a little mortified. 🤦🏻♀️
But this post is not about me.
Since Corinne’s adulthood is so recent, it’s natural that she would forget on occasion. Last week, she told me about an interaction she had with her uncle Rodolfo who lives with us. I was at my dad’s, and she was going out to pick up a friend. I knew she planned to go out, but since I wasn’t home, she told Rodolfo she was leaving to drive her friend to work. He asked why she was telling him, and I asked her why she thought she had to tell him. Her response? “He was the only adult here.”
I reminded her that he was not the only adult home. In fact, we no longer have any children living in the house. 😲 I suggested the next time she just ask if he wants her to pick up anything for him while she’s out. And of course, I still want to know where she’s going…so I can tell her “Drive safe. Don’t be dumb.” 🤣
Just a couple of days ago, we had something to sign for State Farm. Both of us had to sign because Corinne is under 24, but there were three possible signature lines. When I showed her where to sign and told her I would sign above, she said she thought she was supposed to sign both lines, and I would sign below…because that was the line for parent or guardian if the licensed driver is under 18. When I tell you how smoothly that sentence came out of her mouth….
I asked her to repeat what she said. Without hesitation she said “You have to sign there because I’m under 18.” Then it immediately clicked. And I immediately laughed.
Both were reasonable mistakes. She’s been a legal adult for only a couple of months after all. But for all of her 18 years, sometimes her kid inside comes out.
At a craft fair before Christmas, I passed by a booth selling rocks with googly eyes. I told the friend I was with that Corinne would totally be buying those when she came to meet us. I wasn’t wrong. She passed the same booth, and the rocks stopped her in her tracks. She bought four for a dollar because they were “so cute.” Rocks…with googly eyes. But hey, they were only four for a dollar.
At the same craft fair, we passed a booth selling positive potatoes that looked similar to one I had just bought her for her birthday. What I didn’t buy for her birthday was a knitted bee (or three), a bigger positive potato, a small triceratops, and a fish in a bowl. But apparently she wanted them too…because they were “so cute.”
The best reminder that she’s still a kid at heart, though…she recently asked me if she could subscribe to a monthly pass on one of the games she plays on her phone pretty much daily. Turns out it’s only $4.99 for the My Little Pony: Magic Princess Royal Club membership. What? It’s rated 4.3 stars in the app store for ages 4+. Sounds like a great deal to me. 😉
We all have to dive back into the childhood pool once in a while, especially if it helps us remember who we are as adults.
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5 Stars for The Getaway List by Emma Lord
320 pages
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: January 23, 2024
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Wednesday Books.
Publisher’s Description
The day of her high school graduation, Riley realizes two things: One, that she has spent the last four years trying so hard to be a Good Kid for her mom that she has no idea who she really is anymore, and two, she has no idea what she wants because of it. The solution? Pack her bags and move to New York for the summer, where her childhood best friend Tom and co-creator of The Getaway List―a list of all the adventures they’ve wanted to do together since he moved away―will hopefully help her get in touch with her old adventurous self, and pave the road to a new future.
Riley isn’t sure what to expect from Tom, who has been distant since his famous mom’s scriptwriting career pulled him away. But when Riley arrives in the city, their reconnection is as effortless as it was when they were young―except with one, unexpected complication that will pull Riley’s feelings in a direction she didn’t know they could take. As she, Tom, and their newfound friends work their way through the delightfully chaotic items on The Getaway List, Riley learns that sometimes the biggest adventure is not one you take, but one you feel in your heart.
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Main Characters:
- Riley – recent high school graduate, hasn’t been accepted to any college she applied to, loves to write, lives with her single mom who co-manages a coffee shop in Virginia, decides to take the bus to New York to spend a weekend with her best friend Tom and ends up staying the summer
- Tom – also a recent high school graduate, intends to take a gap year, moved to Manhattan with his screenwriter mom the summer after his and Riley’s freshman year of high school
- Jesse – graduated with Riley, his band The Walking JED is moving to New York
- Mariella – former classmate of Tom’s, wants to be a photographer
- Luca – wants to be a writer, meets Riley and Tom at a writing class and is a little obsessed with Tom’s famous mother
I can always count on Emma Lord for a fun, quirky, well-written young adult story when I want (need?) a quick read that I know will put a smile on my face. The pacing of Lord’s novels is perfect, and she really seems to grasp the frenetic physical and mental energy of young adults. I think it can be challenging for author’s to write young adults well, and they can sound either too mature or too childish. As the mother of a teenage daughter, I can tell you that Lord’s characterization is spot on.
- “Far as I know, I’m going to be stuck in Falls Creek until I Falls Croak.”
- “Tom is my all-time best but worst friend—best because we would literally die for each other, and worst because in the last year he’s texted with the frequency of a prehistoric rock.”
- “What is he going to do, suspend me again in the last five minutes of my high school career? Been there, permanent recorded that.”
Riley narrates her own story in The Getaway List, as she graduates high school missing her best friend and completely uncertain what she wants to do with the rest of her life. Her solution is to hop on a bus from Virginia to New York to spend the weekend in Manhattan and maybe, just maybe, check off some things on The Getaway List she and Tom started after he moved away:
- Go on a road trip once we’ve got our licenses.
- Take the Tides of Time interactive fiction writing class.
- Go on the Tides of Time exploration walk in the Central Park.
- See the Walking JED live in concert.
- Go to karaoke.
- Go on a camping trip.
- Be “Dear Love” Dispatch coworkers.
- Make custom brownies at Brownie Bonanza.
- Actually see each other in our corporeal forms.
When Riley decides on a whim to stay in New York for the summer, she and Tom are determined to check off as many things on the list as possible. Along the way, they enlist the assistance and company of Mariella, Jesse, and Luca, who also help Riley discover what she really wants. We know there will be a happily ever after, and this book actually has several, which adds a nice touch.
I loved seeing Riley develop over this one summer away from home so that she could realize who she wants to be, both together with and separate from Tom and her mom. She also learns a lot about her best friend that she didn’t appreciate or understand at all. Drama permeates every corner of life at 18, and Riley and Tom are no exception. This is a great read for teens and young adults…and parents who might want a peek into the scrambled heads of their teenagers. 🙃
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