It’s day three of Home Alone: The Dave McLean Edition, and all’s going reasonably well. I haven’t bought a single meal so far, the cats’ litter boxes haven’t become ziggurats of poop, and the house doesn’t yet reek of stale sweat and/or Wild Turkey. Yet.
I have to admit it’s incredibly weird not having Sarah around. It’s hard to describe, but everything feels ever so slightly off. I’ll be watching TV and I’ll suddenly think, “Holy crap! I forgot to…” but then I realize there’s nothing I’ve forgotten. Or this morning, stepping out of the shower, I had this strange sensation it wasn’t Friday at all, that I’d somehow missed Friday. Again—weird half-second of alarm, then I was fine. I’m not nuts, I’m not obsessing about this constantly; I just have these strange occasional flashes.
We’ve been apart before, obviously, and longer than the two-and-a-half days that have passed so far, but usually I’m terribly busy when this happens. I’ve been in Toronto for work, but my days and nights are always totally booked up then. And Sarah was away once for five-day work-related retreat—but that was just after buying the house so I was moonlighting as a painter of closets. But now, things are surprisingly quiet. Work is manageable, some other non-work interests have wound down, and our string of crazybusy, packed-to-the-minute weekends have come to a close as of last Sunday. So I’ve got loads and loads of time ahead of me.
Which I’ve wanted so very badly, I should note. It’s been a hectic couple of months and I’ve prayed for this summer to end so I could get a break. But now that I have it I’m afraid I have too big a break on my hands. I think most people are like me in that they need an optimal amount of free time. Too little and you get miserable. Too much and you waste it farting around. So in the face of too much free time, I’ve been creating an epic list of Things To Do (because you know I love To Do lists). Some of the items involve boring old chores (washing windows), some involve stuff I should have done months ago (murdering the old lady next door), some of it will be hard and frustrating (acquiring web smartz), and some of it involves outright recreation (going to the movies—because I can’t believe I live in a world where I haven’t seen The Dark Knight.) Delivering reasonable updates to this sadly neglected site is also an item on the list, so expect more here over the days ahead.
I have to admit it’s incredibly weird not having Sarah around. It’s hard to describe, but everything feels ever so slightly off. I’ll be watching TV and I’ll suddenly think, “Holy crap! I forgot to…” but then I realize there’s nothing I’ve forgotten. Or this morning, stepping out of the shower, I had this strange sensation it wasn’t Friday at all, that I’d somehow missed Friday. Again—weird half-second of alarm, then I was fine. I’m not nuts, I’m not obsessing about this constantly; I just have these strange occasional flashes.
We’ve been apart before, obviously, and longer than the two-and-a-half days that have passed so far, but usually I’m terribly busy when this happens. I’ve been in Toronto for work, but my days and nights are always totally booked up then. And Sarah was away once for five-day work-related retreat—but that was just after buying the house so I was moonlighting as a painter of closets. But now, things are surprisingly quiet. Work is manageable, some other non-work interests have wound down, and our string of crazybusy, packed-to-the-minute weekends have come to a close as of last Sunday. So I’ve got loads and loads of time ahead of me.
Which I’ve wanted so very badly, I should note. It’s been a hectic couple of months and I’ve prayed for this summer to end so I could get a break. But now that I have it I’m afraid I have too big a break on my hands. I think most people are like me in that they need an optimal amount of free time. Too little and you get miserable. Too much and you waste it farting around. So in the face of too much free time, I’ve been creating an epic list of Things To Do (because you know I love To Do lists). Some of the items involve boring old chores (washing windows), some involve stuff I should have done months ago (murdering the old lady next door), some of it will be hard and frustrating (acquiring web smartz), and some of it involves outright recreation (going to the movies—because I can’t believe I live in a world where I haven’t seen The Dark Knight.) Delivering reasonable updates to this sadly neglected site is also an item on the list, so expect more here over the days ahead.
Comments
You should have webcammed the whole experience and broadcast it.
You could have made a mint.
Or not.
I mean, think of an "Orson Welles" themed episode.