A Pink Lady

Hello and welcome to a cozy, snowy Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is January 10th. How did you do this first week of 2026 gettting back to work, school, life, and what have you? 

For me? In a word: Uffda.

Throughout the week, as a form of greeting, friends and coworkers asked, "How was your holiday?" It took me a few tries, but ultimately I got my answer down to this: It was fun and fast. We did a lot of traveling. But I didn't come away from it feeling rested.

Rest was the one item on the to-do list that kept getting tucked under other tasks and activities. Not only did we ski, we threw in some impromptu bowling and saw Bob Dylan's childhood home. After a fabulous New Year's Eve party where all the Almanac authors, including WAKWIR 2.0, were present, we hopped in the van and headed to the Twin Cities to attend a much-loved annual party with people who have varied connections to Czech and Slovak culture, history, and heritage. This party celebrated its own 20th anniversary since its inception. Since we've moved to Wannaksaland, we've only attended a handful of times. This year, upon special request for our attendance and my husband's beer, we made the trek. It was one thousand percent worth it. But the drive. Uffda.

We thought last Sunday might be a last push for a rest day, only to remember we needed to drive College Kid 3.0, aka WAKWIR 1.0* to the Falls Airport. With the icy roads, this became an all-day affair; not the 3-hour stint I had imagined when we'd booked the flight back in October.

So, Monday was not met with merriment at our house. Everyone was chagrined, except for maybe the cats, who were happy to have their people back and could resume their morning and evening stints of getting some couch time in the house. We all slept in as late as possible, plus five minutes. Kids felt dread returning to the routine as much as I did, although this time, I didn't get any requests to switch to homeschool like I did at the end of summer vacation. I wondered how I might go back to my stay-at-home life, where I would have been able to sleep in (or go back to bed) and get that one more day of rest. 

The good news is that each day got better. The routine felt a little more familiar, a little more comfortable. Sort of like easing a weary body into a hot bath, as the days passed, we relaxed. One of the activities that helped us rest as a family was watching the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series. The older kids and I had read the series and listened to it on audiobook while traveling one summer during a week of Czech camp. I'm thrilled whenever my kids read - even the adult children to this day - but it's especially delightful when we can have a shared story experience that we all enjoy.

We tucked in with a Friday-night snack feast of Cheeto white cheddar puffs, Valentine Nutty Buddies, club crackers, and crab salad. We watched not one, not two, but three episodes, saving the last (or hopefully only the most recent episode, as new episodes drop every Wednesday) episode for tonight, hopeful that Percy, Annabeth, and Clarisse will obtain the Golden Fleece, save their friend Grover, and end the impending threat of war between the Titans and the Olympians. (Kronos isn't alive yet, WAKWIR 2.0 just clarified, but Poseidon had to give up his palace to save Olympus. Basically, conflict's a brewin', and it's up to the demigod kids to save the world.)

After the kids went to bed, my husband and I finally sat down to enjoy a movie of our own (something we thought we'd have oodles of time to do over the holiday break, but didn't happen). "I have the perfect movie for you," he said, which turned out to be a Gerard Butler action flick called Plane. "I just want to watch something funny," I complained. Despite my initial reticence, I got pulled into this hero's journey/tale of a commercial pilot saving his passengers after an emergency landing on a hostile island.

In the quiet of this Saturday morning, I thought about the Titans vs. the Olympians and the "good guys" vs. the "bad guys," and the other myriad examples in literature of one side versus the other. The Montagues and the Capulets. The Hatfields and the McCoys. The Jets and the Sharks. The T-Birds and the Scorpions (and the conflicted Pink Ladies who don't want to choose any side.)

I think about if I could choose, which side would I pick. The Olympians, of course, because Percy and his gang are the "good guys" and that's what they would pick. But, wait a second. Their godly parents aren't all good and holy. The Montagues and Capulets were both terrible, because both kids died in the end. Folks just get all shot up and carry forward the legacy of grudge through the generations of Hatfield and McCoys. The Jets and the Sharks both suffer losses, and nothing gets resolved except to retreat into their own territories to lick their wounds and ponder the irreversibility of their choices. Yet, there's hope found in Danny and Craterface's reconciliation (Note: I had to google this character's name. I could only remember him as "the bad guy" in Grease), and the girls all get their guy.

I think I'm a Pink Lady.

I'm not ready to be okay with picking sides and justifying death when it aligns with my "side." I resist picking a side. Like Annabeth, I want to believe that Luke can be saved from Kronos' evil plan. I want to be a parent who saves all the children. I don't want to see anyone shot. I want neighbors to feel like they all have a place in a community.

Google just told me there's another show I can watch this weekend - after the last (or most recent) episode of Percy Jackson - Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.