Taking a Deep Breath

For a week now, DH and his daughters have been in BC, visiting family. I was invited to join them, but for me, a quiet week with the house to myself is the best vacation ever. I declined the invitation.

This is the stuff holidays are made of, in my world. The house bears no trace of the family; no crumbs on the counter-top, no grubby fingerprints on the white fridge, no Wii or Barbie crap all over the basement. There is no pile of dress shirts on the settee in the bedroom, awaiting drop-off at the dry-cleaner. Everything is clean and tidy and in the place where it belongs.

The house is silent. No TV blaring just because, no persistent pop music whining out of the SD's rooms at all waking hours. CBC Radio 1, my good friend, has kept me company when I wanted stimulation.

I have eaten whatever I feel like this week; stuffed myself with salads and vegetables and fresh blueberries and toast for any and all meals of the day and strawberry protein shakes for dinner. I have drank gallons of tea and snacked on golden honey tomatoes and sugar snap peas straight from the garden.

I've stayed up late and slept in every day, despite the best efforts of two needy, hungry, and at times pissy cats. I have read two whole novels while sitting on the sunny front porch (Terry Brooks' Armageddon's Children and The Elves of Cintra), sustaining a wee sunburn while doing so but not sorry in the least.

I've set up a knitting station on the floor of the front room, and watched the last five episodes of Grey's Anatomy that I was saving for this holiday while finishing off the plain brown socks. I'm glad I was done knitting them by the end of the season finale, because I will admit to weeping freely when Derek and Meredith FINALLY got their act together. I've also watched a couple of episodes of Dark Angel (second season), Ghost in the Shell, and a lot of Sex and the City. Also a couple of those reality modelling shows. You know. Stuff I just can't watch with DH around.

I've played Guild Wars for a good couple of hours daily, just hacking about in Elona, working on my cartographer title as well as general game progression.

I've also clocked a load of time in the sewing room, working on my niece's quilt. I've started piecing the whole thing together, using the "grout" method from Reversible Quilts. I think it looks fantastic, and when you're quilting-as-you-go, the whole project just seems to move right along. I may be working on borders by day's end.

This afternoon is my last few hours of holiday. DH and the crew get back tonight and the house will again be filled with the delightful sound of children squabbling over everything and nothing, random piles of kid crap everywhere, meat, meat and more meat for meals, and total loss of control over the TV remote.

I think I have saved up enough Zen shui-shui from the last week to get me through a few days with equanimity. After that, there are no guarantees.

You must excuse me, I have a hot date with a sewing machine and CBC Radio 1. Got to store up a few more hours of shui-shui before the barbarian hordes descend.