he's back

He's back! And look what less than a week in Southern California's done to him. LOL That's right.....my Pacific Northwest boy's turned LA hip in a few short days.

He left here the day after Christmas for a week in SoCal with his dad, visiting his side of the family, and from all accounts had a terrific time. He had a third Christmas at his grandparent's (after the one here at home, and the second one at his dad's before they left), got to see his Aunt and Uncle's, hung out with his cousin every day, had a sleepover, played the Wii, stayed up too late, ate all the wrong foods, and went to Castle Park one day. Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but I'm sure glad it wasn't Disneyland since I've got plans to take him there later this year.

As much as I like to have some "me" time, it's great having him home again. We've even fallen right back into our usual routine - me on the computer and him playing his PS2 - which is probably a good thing since tomorrow we'll be hitting the routine hard with school starting back up and me having to remember how I get myself going, ready for work, him going, fed, clothed and dropped off at school and still make it to work at a reasonable hour.

Welcome home sweet pea, Mommy missed you!

a pseudo vacation of sorts

It's been a long time since I've had a vacation. A very long time by "real" vacation standards. We're talking a decade. And the last "vacation out of the state to see family/friends" was over 3 years ago. So this week I am taking a "pseudo" vacation. What's that? It's when you don't go anywhere and still you get some free time and personal space.

This is all possible because the little man has gone to the East coast with his father for 13 nights.


I've not been away from him for more than 3 nights in all his 7 years, so leading up to his departure I was having a really hard time of it. That, and dealing with all the other unexplained shit going on in my life right now, had me pretty down. But ya know what? He's been gone for 5 nights so far and things haven't been as horrible as I'd imagined. In fact, there's some really good things about this little break.

There's no packing involved for a "pseudo" vacation. All the comforts of home are right there, all the time, for you to enjoy. You can wash clothes, dishes, clean the house, or do none of the above at any hour you choose because there's no one around to wake. And you don't have to worry if your favorite jeans aren't clean, or your little travel sized bottles are empty.

You can stay up until way-FREAKIN-too-late on Saturday night because you don't have anyone that needs feeding, attention, or otherwise to take care of on Sunday morning.

You don't have to fight about what to watch on the teevee and can park your ass for 5 hours in front of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels and skip all the boring sports. Yum!

You can read, uninterrupted.

You can get up on a workday and only have to worry about getting yourself ready. No picking out someone's clothes, making breakfast, cleaning up dishes, making sure teeth are brushed, packing lunches, and playing taxi driver.

You can eat, or not eat, dinner at any time you choose. And eat whatever you want!

You can count the days until one of your best friends arrives and know that you will party like there's no tomorrow, and then party some more.

Oh, yes, I'm enjoying my "pseudo" vacation very much. I just wish I didn't miss the little man as much as I do.