While enjoying the beach during your summer family vacay, your son
chuckle, then pause
finally took off his Mom’s voice-cancelling headphones. After awhile he shook his head, gave off a grin and proclaimed:
“First world beach problems.”
“What?” you reply, as usual.
“Just listen,” he said, nodding at the others hunkered down on towels and beach chairs round about us. Soon, a slow steady stream came your way:
“The wi-fi at our house is way too slow.”
“Is my Coppertone rubbed in all the way?”
“After I went to get my spray tan I got stuck at the salon because it was raining.”
“She told me that I couldn’t get Netflix here.”
“I forgot to back up my iCloud before I left.”
“Our roof cargo box fell off of our Escalade when I pulled into the garage of our beach cottage.”
“This morning when I turned on my Xbox 360 and got nothing but the ring of fire.”
“Please don’t eat that Haagen Dazs straight out of the carton.”
“Is there a Verizon around here? I need a new iPhone.”
“On the way down we stopped at Chick fil-A and they were out of number one combos.”
“Yesterday I didn’t have time to take a nap.”
“I have not been to Paris in two years.”
“I only read books on my iPad.”
“Last night, thank heavens I got surf n’ turf and not that blackened shrimp.”
Which you guess beats, “Are we having chicken for dinner again tonight?” Meanwhile, pass that Haagen Dasz on along and if anyone knows what the heck ring of fire is, please let me know.
Français : Zone Wi-Fi dans le parc de Bercy, Paris
Saturday Evening Porch 
It gives perspective, doesn’t it?
seriously, winsome! gives one pause…
LOVE THIS ONE!!! So true and puts our “problems” in perspective!!
Everyone should read this!!!
Love the photos too!
Thanks so very much, mwhit!! Looking forward to reading your new work!
If that’s not an eye opener, I don’t know what is. And we think WE’VE got problems? [pouring on the sarcasm here] Sheesh! On another note, it sure is good to see you back in the blogging world. Missed you and your writing!
Thanks so much M.E.N.! I took the summer off to work on another writing project. I’ve missed you, too, and your posts and photos! Off to go catch up on my reader!
Isn’t ring of fire a song by Johnny Cash? “And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire…the ring of fire…”.
Irene PLEASE do a vlog and sing it, girl!
Love this. You really get a new perspective on what’s important to people if you just stop and eavesdrop. Not one person was talking about the economy!
Thanks and so true, CE! Then I realized that these people were on vacay…including moi! Loved your recent post about your conference!
Hey Reeling, how did I miss this post? 🙂 I kept checking and didn’t see anything new, so I’m happy I popped over again and caught this one. Wow. What a deluge of first-world problems. It’s crazy, how over-indulged our society is. You did a great job of remembering and recounting!
I’m ashamed to say that I do know what the ring of fire is — but as we’ve discussed, I’m married to a computer guy. It’s a lot more boring than the name would imply, so I won’t tell you what it is, that way it’ll retain some allure and mystery!
How did I miss this? I will try unfollowing and then following you again, so hopefully I don’t miss anything. This is very funny and so very true. It was so good to have you drop by today. Miss you and will be here when you post.
Thanks so much, Melissa! So loved catching up with your posts, as well! I’ve been working on a poetry manuscript, so have been out of the loop. Thanks for popping over again!!
Love that you know what the ring of fire is–you are young and hip! (As my mother used to say 🙂
Hi G! I’ve missed reading your posts, too! Just got caught up with you and yours. Will always be here for you, too!
Fun post! Thanks for visiting my blog. 🙂