Voices of MainStreet: Lisa Rae Rosenberg

Gimme A Break

Mar. 4, 2011

I grew up in a beautiful Northern California beach town where tourists came to spend spring break. Perhaps because I was fortunate to live year-round in a get-away destination, I was never drawn to traveling for a week every spring and I’ve yet to do it.

Now that I’m a Southern California housewife and mom, I have even less interest in a traditional spring break-beer funnel-bikini contest-MTV Beach House-style experience.

This season, my family and I looked into the possibility of heading to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my husband’s grandmother.

Unfortunately, the price of airfare made the trip out of the question, so as we've done the past few years, we'll be spending this spring break at home. That doesn’t mean I’m not excited by the prospect of a week designated as a “break.”

I love the daily rhythm of my family life, but a stretch of days filled with just fun stuff will be good for morale. I have some modest ideas for what I’d like to do during the downtime:

Go to the movies with my husband. A real movie, in a real theater. We only saw one move in 2010 and it was the re-make of "The A-Team." Don’t judge.

Spend a day at the beach, rain or shine.

Devise a way to keep the squirrels out of the vegetable garden. (This is not a euphemism. Our squirrels are tomato thieves.)

Give my four-year-old son a day to make all of the plans for the family. I have a feeling this might translate to driving through In N Out Burger for all three meals.

Read at least one book from start to finish. It can often take me a month to finish a book since I have a nasty habit of falling asleep after reading a page or two. This time, I may even attempt to read during daylight hours. Which leads me to …

Take a nap. Maybe two. (Still working out the logistic on this one, but a girl can dream.)

Lunch at the botanical gardens for tulip-gazing and a mini-train ride. I love that mini-train ride.

Fire up the BBQ for its 2011 debut. Yes, I can get excited about grilled zucchini.

So, for our spring break, there will be no Jello shots and no one will be up all night unless we get the stomach flu. But we do know how to party, in our own way.

Welcome spring. We’re ready for you.

—Lisa is a former comedy writer for television. She now writes about her funny family at her blog Smacksy.com.