As I eluded to when
I wrote about his birthday, Tim was out of town last week. In fact, he was in Mexico City for a study abroad program for his MBA. It was a great opportunity that I'm glad he pursued. It also left me all by my lonesome for a week, the longest time I've lived the single life since we bought the house in October of 2008.
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| All by myselffffff ... except for a Yorkie |
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| I did a lot of this. |
It was weird. I've lived alone and traveled by myself, but it was different being in my own home and left to my own devices for so long. It also provided a few insights that I found interesting.
- I don't power down. Left to my own devices, I had a
- really hard time just relaxing for any length of time. I was always popping up to do laundry, stir dinner, take out Napoleon, etc. I'm definitely a victim of the cult of busy.
- I don't watch television. See point one. I had a hard time sitting still for an extended amount of time. There was always something else vying for my time.
- I spend a ridiculous amount of time working out. I'd say I have a problem, but I'm already freaking out about how far behind I feel for the Ironman. I often work out twice a day to try and keep up with the training requirements.
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| Sad Napoleon is sad. |
- Leftovers are awesome. I ate a lot of the same three or four flavor combinations for the duration. I'm trying to empty our pantry and I think I made some headway.
- Every noise is a problem. Funny story: the first night alone I was totally fine. I had finished my 20-mile run the day before and was still pretty drained. The second night, shit got real. To preface this, I read these two-sentence horror stories that day and it might have colored my perception. My two-sentence recount of the tale: I knew it was my imagination when I heard footsteps on the stairs. Until Napoleon got up to greet the intruder.
- My dog needs more attention. Napoleon did not enjoy Tim's trip abroad. He sulked, he whined and he barked. I took him to work one day because I felt bad about leaving him alone all day. He hated that more. Essentially, Napoleon loves Tim more than me, and I'm OK with that.
- I am very boring/lonely on my own. I work in front of a computer for 10 hours a day, then come home and workout before going to bed. That's kind of lame. It sucks not having family nearby either.
What do you do differently when your significant other is away?
7 comments:
Very aptly timed post, my housemate is away this week. Myself and my puppy are quite bored. I'm doing housework etc to fill the time. No TV time here either so I mostly talk to the dog lol. Never realized how used you can get to having another person around.
I lived alone for roughly 7 months when Robert first enlisted. It was weird, and a bit of an adjustment at first, and then I got used to it. It was also the first time in my adult life living "alone" except it was weird because his stuff was still there and I felt the void of him being gone.
Anyway, I definitely find that when I'm alone (even now), I'll stay up way later than I want to, for no good reason. It's not rare for Robert to head out to the burbs to hang with his BFF (it's boring for me so I don't tag along) and he'll crash out there. So often I'm like "Robert's gone! I can go to bed at 10pm and get up early to run!" And then I stay up to 2am surfing the 'net, watching TV, etc. Probably because I'm too freaked out to turn out the lights. And I'm a nightowl.
Luckily, during the time he was at bootcamp/A-school, I had a lot of my family and friends living nearby, so I was able to spend a lot of time with all of them. So that was a nice side effect. We get so caught up in our own lives, it's easy to let other friendships fall to the wayside.
Also when he was at bootcamp is when I adopted Olive :)
I don't think I've ever been alone in our apartment for more than a night since moving in together. I'm not sure WHAT I'd do on my own for a week!
the closest thing I have is V being away..and I can't even think of it..next time call us, we will play board games or something
I've been married for 15 years, so when my husband is away, I rejoice! (Ha, ha... just kidding, well, kinda)
No but seriously, it's sometimes a nice little break in the amount of laundry, dishes, cooking, etc. Time away is good for the soul ;-)
I can't decide if the pet component helps or not - I was fine ignoring the phantom steps until Napoleon got up and acted like he was greeting someone. Shudder ...
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