Today is Sunday. I have been home alone since Thursday morning. It’s been an opportunity that I’ve been looking forward to for several months. My husband and son went to visit my other son and daughter for my son’s spring break.
Oddly, it wasn’t odd that my husband planned this without me. We stay with my daughter which saves us a lot of money but with cost of the flight makes it something we need to think twice about whether I would go.
I was thrilled to be home for the week. I put a ton of pressure on myself to get a lot done because I don’t have any other responsibilities or anyone here. It is just me taking care of me.
They left Thursday, and I was uber tired. I was really tired Friday too. I made it a priority to get work done but otherwise, did the minimum. I made myself a crockpot of chili that I’ve been eating and adding to so that I always have food.
So far I haven’t done errands. I need to declutter in a huge way but that is such a big undertaking that I’m putting it off. Yesterday, I started journaling on here again. I listed a few things on Poshmark yesterday and today.
Deciding what to do
I find it hard to make plans with friends when I have the chance to be home alone. On Thursday morning, I met one of my friends for breakfast. We usually go twice a year, and that was the day we decided to go. I jumped at the chance because my friend is really busy, and it’s hard to make a plan. I also sensed she wanted to talk.
We often walk but haven’t in a few weeks because of our kids’ spring breaks which were different weeks. She’s a mom like me in that she’s always making herself available for her kids.
So even though I should have made the breakfast happen when husband would be home, I’m so glad we went. We were there a few hours, and it was great.
Seeing another friend
Another person I wanted to see was a friend of mine I met when I lived in another state. We were friends and our kids were friends. She’s divorced and has been for 15 years. She moved here when her son was going into 8th grade. He’s now a sophomore in college.
He goes to college out of the country where he has family. She is going to be moving out there to be closer to him (about 8 hours by train). She’s been here for over 6 years, and there were years (even before and after Covid) we didn’t get together. But now that she’s moving, we really have been ramping out our meetings. We usually meet for coffee (at Whole Foods) or a tea place.
She was laid off two years ago and has been using her time to flip her condo. She did lots of projects by herself and hired for what she couldn’t do.
Her place is on the market now. When it sells, she’s moving. I’ve wanted to have her over for lunch or dinner for ages. I just never made the time. A lot of it was because my husband would be here. He would stay out of our way and wouldn’t care but it’s still not the same as him not being here at all.
So yesterday, I texted asking if she wanted to come over either yesterday or today. She was thrilled to come today with her small dog (she asked if she could bring him) because her realtor was having an open house at her place. She needed to be out.
So it worked perfectly. She’s probably around 40 minutes away. She got here around 1:30pm and left around 6:30pm, and like always, we had the best time talking.
I loved that we didn’t need to spend $20 each on a lunch, and a loved that I felt like a grown-up serving a meal! My world has gotten very small since moving here. I usually don’t have anyone over.
Smoke detector’s batteries dead
This morning I was woken by the smoke detector going off because of the batteries. This never fails. Whenever my husband is gone this happens. I was glad it was morning and not 4am. The bummer was that for the first time in years, I was actually sleeping past 6am. So I work around 7:10am from the smoke detector.
Even odder was that before we left for the airport at 4:15am on Thursday, the smoke detector in our hallway also started chirping. Two smoke detectors which means likely another one will be sounding as well.
I was very productive
After waking up to deal with the chirping, getting coffee, etc., I worked on one of my websites for a bit. Then I started listing a few things on Poshmark.
In the middle of me listing something, my friend from another state called me. It was great because I love talking to her. Her kids are out of college, and she’s divorced and has been job hunting. She’s super positive. We talked for 2 hours and 37 minutes and during that time, I was zipping around my house, picking up clutter, dealing with dishes, cleaning the bathroom, sweeping, putting Poshmark stuff away, putting my TikTok samples away, and more.
When we hung up, I had about 30 minutes to work on editing a TikTok post I filmed yesterday and post it. I engaged with my “friends” for about 5 minutes, and then my friend was here.
So I got to talk to my friend on the phone and clean my house enough where it wasn’t cluttery. I still have cleaning to do but this was great.
Sticking to my goals
I was very happy to use my “home alone” time with her. I’m so glad I did. I didn’t feel like it was a waste of my alone time. She left and it was getting dark but even then, I raced to get my shoes on and walked. I ended up going down my block and back and was only at .79 miles.
My goal is a mile a day, so I was very proud of myself, that I reset my walking app (I use Nike Run app to track) and just walk up and down the street in front of my house several times and then I came back and had .24 miles. So I did it and was thrilled.
Then I cleared dishes, engaged on TikTok with everyone who commented on my post from today, and then am writing here. It’s 8:50pm now, and while I had planned to watch a movie, I’m totally crashing out. I think I’m going to go read and fall asleep so I’ll be fresh for tomorrow.
I am so blessed to have friends and so many things to do. I am never bored.