Ostensible Writing

I’ve started bringing my laptop with me to the various activities I ferry my daughter to this summer. Every few days I pack the thing up on the way to a swimming pool or an axe-throwing competition with the hope of doing…well something. Just quite what I’m not sure. A bit of work? Getting a jump on next year’s taxes? Taking an online course in podiatry?

Instead of any of these worthy pursuits I find myself reading up on celebrities (did you know that so-and-so regrets getting cosmetic breast implants in utero? Who wouldn’t?) or simply watching people and silently judging them. Who wears a mullet these days? Didn’t we pretty much decide that was a horrible idea forty years ago and what’s going on with pleated jeans?

More often than not I don’t even open my laptop and, by the time I leave wherever I’ve been, the only thing I’ve achieved is a vague sense of disappointment. I could, of course, actually try to accomplish something but that seems like too much bother. It is, after all, summer and what’s the point of summer if not to have fun with your family or, at least, watch your daughter roller skate while you check up on Bennifer from time to time. There will, after all, be time enough for work later on in the day.

Now excuse me. Some idiot just walked into the roller rink with a t-shirt that reads “I’ve got my hooker on speed dial”. Seriously what kind of person wears that?

About the Author

derekbremer Prior to his life as a stay at home father Derek spent more than a decade performing public relations and marketing functions for financial consulting firms and found the job to be precisely as exciting as it sounds. When not tending to his wife or daughter Derek enjoys subjecting the public to his unique take on fatherhood, travel and animal husbandry. He has been published in Scary Mommy, Sammiches and Psych Meds, The Good Men Project, HowToBeADad, Red Tricycle, RAZED, HPP and the Anthology "It's Really Ten Months Special Delivery: A Collection of Stories from Girth to Birth.