Ten Things About Being Away

Last day of the month, and I'm under the gun.  Need that tenth post for the month of February.

One reason for this end-of-the-month sprint has been that I've been away from home for a week.  Before our tax refunds were processed, we barely had two dimes to rub together in the business coffers.  Which doesn't play very well when you have a building to maintain to the tune of about $600 a month. So off we went to Newport, braving all manner of crappy winter weather, to this direly expensive February event on the coast... hoping to at the very least create some badly needed cash flow.  Which turned out to be pretty much all we did.  The event was poorly attended, and kind of a bust.   . 

But I'm home now, sitting in my chair, laptop at the ready, staring at the blinking cursor... Utterly burnt out as I am on the subject of the drama playing out in our nation's capital, I think I'll revive another of my old stand-bys:  The "ten things" list.  And since, as I said, I've just returned from a week away, I'll make that the subject of my ten things.

Ten Things About Being Away From Home For A Week, In No Particular Order

1.)  After dismantling the hyper-illumination of Christmas, I go to great lengths to concoct pleasing lighting schemes throughout the house, to battle the constant gloom that envelops the Pacific Northwest from November through the end of March or beyond.  We also have a pellet stove in the family room, which provides a cheerful flame and a dry warmth to combat the ceaseless dampness.  When I get up in the morning, I go around the house and turn on the lights, if only to stave off the SAD that strikes after the holidays.  And I light the fire, for warmth and cheer.   Husband, on the other hand, uses lighting only when needed for a task.  When I'm not home, he never turns on a light unless he needs it to see.  And god forbid he should light the stove.  He sits on the couch, in the dark, wearing a hoody  with the hood up over his head, hands jammed in his pockets, while he watches his four hours of tv between dinner and bed time.

2.)  Speaking of husband's evening repast...his week's dinners consisted of one fat Costco rotisserie chicken and the last bags of stale chips left in the pantry from last year's market/festival season.     

3.) Though it irritates me that vacuuming, dish-washing and other essential tasks aren't performed in my absence, it's almost worse when they ARE done.  Dishes get put away where I can never find them again; if he does take out the vacuum, he crams it back in the closet so that it falls out every time I open the door; MY clothes disappear into some mysterious void when he does laundry.  Hard to pay lip service to appreciating the effort when you're opening drawers, crawling through cabinets and struggling with closet doors, looking for your lost stuff...

4.) The birds don't expire from lack of food while I'm gone.  It takes them about fifteen minutes to realize I'm back and the gravy train is back on track.  I don't know why I worry they'll abandon me.

5.)  The cats, on the other hand, don't seem to give a rat's ass whether I'm home or not.  I walked in the door on Monday afternoon, and they barely lifted their heads to acknowledge me.  It's like, "Oh.  It's you.  Yay."  I need a dog.

6.)  It's funny how fast you can get used to not having cat hair all over everything you wear, eat, drink, sit on or sleep in...  Maybe I should point this out to certain feline animals who share my living space, when they are inclined to show so little enthusiasm about my return.

7.)  One of my primary realizations on returning to this house after time away is that it is too big, too much, and too hard.  I spend a lot of time making a home and maintaining a space that is primarily enjoyed by...me.  And if that is going to be the case, that space needs to be much smaller and more user friendly. 

8.)  Why is it that when you're driving pulling a full trailer, you get so much more tired than when you're just driving an empty truck?  Why does it feel like you personally are dragging that extra weight up hill and down dale strapped to your own back?

9.)  I NEED a vacation at the beach, before the start of Market season turns trips to the coast into work rather than play.  I'm going to address that issue as soon as I'm done with this post. 

10.)  As much as the husband doesn't seem engage with our home at all when I'm away, he does seem to miss me when I'm gone.  Maybe we're only sitting together in the (bright, warm) family room watching tv in the evenings.  But apparently, he enjoys it so much more when I'm there, too.  After what we have been through, relationship-wise, I guess that is something to be thankful for.  So I am. 

So, there.  Ten random thoughts about my week-long absence.  And now, I think I need to crawl into that side of the bed that he never disturbs while I'm gone (he crawls in and out of his very own side of the bed , leaves all the pillows and blankets on my side in place...never even wrinkles them) and rest my weary head.