All Mine
Posted on February 1, 2008
Filed Under marriage, suburban joys, My Better Half, Friday round-up |
I like it when I get a chance to spend a few days alone in the house. It’s a rare opportunity. My Better Half works from home and so the occasional business trip is, while not exactly welcome, at least a break from each other, in a long spell of togetherness.
During these days of quiet, I am supposed to write and mostly I do. I move into his office and take up residence before the REAL computer. I can close a door. I can find a pen in the little pen holder thingie that sits beside the flat screen monitor. It feels serious and mature. It’s a marked improvement over my usual position in the dining room, where I am subject to all manner of disturbances - the pets, the phone, the kitchen, the husband who walks heavily through the room on his way to the bathroom where he will mute his conference call and relieve himself, 45 times a day.
When it’s just me here alone, and the writing is done, or I need a sort of break from the page, I float around drinking cold cups of coffee, watering plants, occasionally joining the cat for quick stretch in a sun beam that is splashed across the bed. I clean the toilets and feel insanely satisfied at the prospect that they will remain just as I left them for at least another four hours before the kids get home.
To celebrate, I play music - loudly. I’m one that believes each life has a soundtrack, that work and workouts and driving and cleaning and cooking and sorting the recycling is all made better, poignant even, if accompanied by the appropriate score. But I can’t really shake the house with my soundtrack while My Better Half is here trying to earn a decent wage. So when I’m here alone you might find me rocking out a little. This week it’s the Ryan Adams version of When the Stars Go Blue but Bono and The Corrs do a pretty respectable rendition too. And I’m also very, very apt to be listening to Third Eye Blind’s Jumper. Even though it’s so ten years ago, I find it kick-ass inspiring every time I hear it (the video is glaringly bad but I still love the song, gets me up that steep hill every time.)
When I’m alone, the way I occupy the space is entirely different. I worship the solitude. But take comfort in the fact that it is fleeting. There is reassurance in the prospect that others will return.The house will, again, fill with laughter and shouting and drifting humanity, but for now it is mine.
(It has been a slooowwww week here. The end of January fades into February and I’m offering up too many posts on tennis and sun beams. I promise next week is going to be edgy and angst-ridden which makes for good blogging if difficult living. Thanks for hanging in there with me.)
Comments
WordPress database error: [Can't open file: 'wp_comments.MYI' (errno: 144)]
SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_ID = '410' AND comment_approved = '1' ORDER BY comment_date
Leave a Reply
