Alone

[pegkerr]

I have been alone for ten glorious hours. You have no idea how rare this is. Rob has been at work and the girls have spent the day out being spoiled by their grandma, who is in town. I went to a coffee shop and bought a coffee and a scone without having to buy for two little girls who squabbled over what to order because I always make them split their treat since coffee shop muffins are so big that if they each got one their dinners would be ruined. I got to wander around a garden store for an hour without anyone whining that they were bored and want to leave. I did a yoga workout. No one was blasting Avril Lavigne next door. I made a sandwich for dinner: wheat bread spread with a mixture of pumpkin, peanut butter, ricotta cheese and wheat germ. Nobody was there to complain that pumpkin was icky. I started rereading The Jane Austen Book Club. Nobody interrupted me.

Public radio is playing Evensong. The fairy lights around the ceiling of my office are lit, bathing the room with a soft indirect glow. Perhaps I shall light some candles. It is so peaceful.

It is so quiet.

When are they going to be home?

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

You want a _spooky_ quiet, wait until the last one moves out.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lindsay_/]

Peg, I have been stressed all day and just *reading* that made me relax a little bit.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Hee! I used to travel on business. The first couple of evenings were always a miracle of independence -- look, I don't have to tell anybody when I'll be back!

It's lovely getting reacquainted with solitude; I just wouldn't want to live there.

[airemay.livejournal.com]

I agree with _lindsay_. Very relaxing indeed. :)

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

Peg, if you ever want me to complain pumpkin is icky, then I'm just an email away ;)

It sounds heavenly

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

*laughs* You know, the one and only time I cried from homesickness duromg the four months I was studying at Cambridge was the time I went to about ten different stores to get a can of pumpkin to make pumpkin bread for our American Thanksgiving dinner. None of the sales clerks knew what I was talking about and as a self-centered eighteen-year old, I couldn't believe it. You don't have pumpkin? How could you????

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

It comes in cans?? This was certainly news to me. I know you can buy them as fruit in larger stores nowadays; American style Halloween decorations are slowly increasing in popularity here.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yes, in the United States you can get pureed cooked pumpkin in cans. I'd had pumpkin over the years, in pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread, of course, but I really started eating it and adding it to a lot of different foods when I became pregnant because it's a terrific source of betacarotines, potassium and vitamin A--a tablespoon of canned pureed pumpkin gives you your daily requirement. (See for example, this book on Superfoods which lists pumpkin as one of the 14 best). It's easy to slip into stews, soups, spaghetti sauce, mix with peanut butter, yogurt, pancakes, all sorts of things. Canned pumpkin makes adding it to your diet really easy.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I've long wondered: what does Avril Lavigne sound like?

B

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

You've never heard
"He was a skater boy,
She said, 'See ya later, boy."
He wasn't good enough for her . . ."
???????

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Not bad, actually. But don't say that where titanic_days can hear!

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

You know nails on a blackboard? Now imagine someone doing that to a guitar.

:D

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yes, but Alex, what you fail to fully appreciate is that to a woman who has listened to a million replays over the years of "The ABC Song," "Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Bananaphone," "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round," and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from the Lion King soundtrack, the likes of Avril Lavigne comes as somewhat of a welcome relief.

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

It may sound weird, but I miss the days when ten hours off was as lovely as you describe it. Two of mine are grown and gone; the other two are away at school. It's too quiet. Still, I do remember the days when just going to the loo was a blessed break from it all, and sometimes even that was hard to accomplish. :D

[castiron.livejournal.com]

It sounds utterly lovely.