Flying Solo

Well, it’s official. I dropped off Denisa and the team at the bus station about an hour and a half ago. They’re off on their way to Slovakia. It’ll take them about 25 hours total to get there. (Drive to Augusta, bus to Boston, flight to Budapest by way of Zurich, taxi to the Budapest train station, train to Bratislava, drive to Trencin.) So if any of you want to spare some good thoughts for Denisa in the next day or so, I’m sure she could use any she can get.

I’ll follow later, but for now, I’m holding down the fort at home. As much as I wish I could just sit around eating brownies and binge watching Netflix all day, I have a number of things I’m going to at least try to get done.

• Stack 2 cord of wood
• Clean up the entire house
• Speak at a Young Single Adult conference on Sunday (9:30am at UMF, if you want to come hear me)
• Repair the damage the lightning strike did to my electronics. (Seriously not cool. I’ve discovered it essentially arc through the phone line into my DSL router, taking out my router, my printer’s network card, my VOIP, and my ethernet expander in one fell swoop. I’ve spent hours trying to fix all of those, but I think some just are beyond repair, and I’ll need to buy new. Sigh.)
• Mow the lawn at least once
• Keep on top of the other chores
• Not get too lonely and depressed to get all the rest of that stuff done.

The final point is going to be the sticky one. I remember when Denisa left last time (seven years ago), there was a fair bit of moping that went on. It’s just a lot easier to be on my own when I’m out and about at conferences, with a ton of things I have to do, and new experiences to distract me. Being at home alone when my entire family is gone isn’t as much fun.

That said, I also remember there was one lovely difference: whenever I cleaned a room, it stayed clean. And then I only had to clean the mess I had made myself. I discovered before that I’ve generally become a much neater person. (Current condition of my office at work aside.) Or maybe I just felt like a messier person because of how often my kids would leave messes around the house.

Anyway. We’ll see if I can get all of that done. Wish me luck. (But more luck to Denisa, naturally.)

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