Kristine Joy, Writer

To Whom It May Concern and FWIW,*

• We needed to not camp next to the Joneses in Ridgway State Park. Not that I’m trying or want to keep up, but the degree of difference between our tent set-up and their wealth seemed ridiculously excessive. For starters, their RV was a $300K+ rig (?) with maybe 8 slide-outs, but apparently not comfortable ENOUGH because they sat outside at the park provided metal picnic table to make their business calls that could easily be overheard by the 6 surrounding campsites. Over the course of an hour, I became informed that they recently purchased an RV park in Texas, they found a house in Ouray earlier that day that they wanted to put an offer on and “we own several businesses” and “there is an up and coming country star by the first name of Josh” that they wanted to visit with and……….I needed to go use the camp toilet at this point because we don’t have three toilets of our own in our nylon soft shell rig.
  • Oh, and I needed for the wind to not be 25+ mph while we tried to set up our sleeping quarters, while also trying to ignore the Joneses.

• I needed for the girl that I couldn’t keep pace with on a run to continue straight when my route turned me left. #thatwasarelief

• I needed to have overheard this conversation between our daughter and her cousin:
  • Cousin: I snuck out and drove my car last night.
  • Daughter: Really? Where did you go?
  • Cousin: I just drove around, but sometimes I go hang out with my girlfriend or friends. Don’t you sneak out?
  • Daughter: No. My car is in the garage AND we have a new ring camera AND have you met me? I just got back from hanging out with my college friend and we played Adopt Me.

• I needed to have deleted 2000+ pictures and videos from my computer, but I needed to have figured out sooner rather than later that storage doesn’t open up UNTIL YOU THEN EMPTY THE RECENTLY DELETED FOLDER.

• Despite being Jannik Sinner’s #1 Fan since before most anyone knew his name, I needed for Grigor Dimitrov to not sustain a pectoral injury causing him to withdraw from Wimbledon when leading Sinner two sets to love.
  • And in the same day, for Jasper Philipsen to not have been taken out of the Tour de France resulting in a displaced fracture of the right collarbone and at least one broken rib.

SPORT IDEALS

The pec-king order shall be established fair and square, without the influence of wheelie-terrible circumstances.

• I need to not have sunburn (nor stretch marks if I’m being ideal) on my a$$. For better or worse, my husband has sympathy actual pain as well in the form of saddle sores from bike riding 40 miles a day multiple days in a row. The new house motto is to #sitgingerly.
  • Seems I need to dig up my inflatable donut cushion that was given to me shortly after giving birth to my daughter (a.k.a. the day that I broke my tailbone).
    • And this reminds me of the phase in which our daughter and her friends assigned comical names to the parent contacts in their phone. I became Birth Giver, which prompted me to name her Tailbone Breaker.

• While working at the golf course, I needed for a 93 year old to show up the other 11 members of his group (he is a multiple time National Senior Champion 😉).
  • Here’s to hoping that I golf like him once in my life, and have his mobility and walking pace when I’m in my nineties!

• I needed to have discovered that Gin & Ginger (Ale) is equally as piquant as Gin & Tonic because I couldn’t find Tonic Water when the mountains called and I went.
  • I needed to have entered Lake City, CO and had a moment of appreciation for their tagline – A Peak Experience!

• I needed to have watched part of the Wimbledon coverage alongside someone that has played at Wimbledon. #beentheredonethat (my friend Micki; not me)

I appreciate your readership. I need the validation as writer; if there is a like or heart icon for you to depress, I’d most appreciate the support!

Sincerely,

K.J. Sculling

* The content is presented as “needs”, and some of them may front a harsh reality that evoke strong emotions. Others are expressed in pure jest to entertain myself (and maybe you?!?). Ultimately, the notion that we all live in a more idyllic world is at the core and not actual need. Life can be tough; regardless of your own circumstances, please keep up the fight because life can also be grand! The idea of ‘I Need…’ stemmed from my thought process while sitting at a red light listening to the song, Alright by Darius Rucker, on the radio (you can read the original ‘Idealist’ post here and all ‘Idealist’ posts here). If you’re inspired to submit your own ‘Idealist’ “needs” for future reader write-in posts, I’d love to hear from you via this form.