Our Crowded Mantel: Lonely On The Homefront

Well, as many of you know my dear hubby has been out of town for ten days living the teacher-on-summer-vacation camper/hiker dream that is Glacier National Park. At first the little bit of freedom was refreshing, time to see friends and family, time to do what I want, exclusively. So, I took some long bike rides. I made a couple of dinner dates with lady friends to catch up. I saw a movie on a whim and a caffeine buzz at 9:45pm on a school night. I went to a baby shower. I watched a former colleague try out for women's USA sled hockey. I got a discount pedicure at the beauty school in a bright shade of mandarin orange. I spent hours upon hours at the house of our dear friends, ate dinner, tickled their baby and generally just chilled like I lived there. I read books. I journaled. I roasted red peppers. I swept the floors and mopped the kitchen. I even hit up the Renaissance Faire for the first time ever.

But now I'm officially over "alone time" and I'm ready for Ry to return. It's lonely and boring here, especially the three days I went without a computer or internet contact because I didn't know our own password and hubby man was out of cell phone land. If you can believe it, even I got sick of reading.

The other compounding factor is that I'm in my new job and on information overload. I've also learned just enough that I feel I really need to sink my teeth into some projects, but I feel paralyzed. So many choices, so many directions I could go, but really, so much I still need to learn. I'm trying to tell myself its exhilarating but it feels scary. I'm also trying to tell myself, you can do this starting-from-scratch-thing again, this is how it works. But without my rock here next to me at night, I feel less secure.

Finally, I have been null and void in the kitchen without him home. It's just not that inspiring to cook for one. I've made one real bonafide meal in the last ten days and the rest has been sandwiches and take out (ahem - not vegan takeout either). In this regard I keep telling myself, you're being a great vegetarian and that counts for something. However, I'm not deluding myself that the two slices of Whole Foods pizza, a Heath bar and a ginger ale I consumed count for a healthy supper. Luckily, food was scant for the rest of the day. I was crabby and drank too much coffee and got all riled up and my hubby is still gone, so I probably could have convinced myself it was okay to eat a cute little baby animal and felt justified.

Any who, enough complaining. I learned today at the chiropractor's office that Jonathan Franzen is coming out with a new novel, like now. Maybe I need to jump into his world and forget mine for a while. Yeah, that's it, a good book, some tea, a long shower and day dreams of Oaxaca - any of those things could keep me sane for the last 24-36 hours of Ry Ry's hiatus.

Since I haven't showcased photos in a while, I'm just gonna put up some random newbies from the last few weeks.