JoyfulC's Blog - June 11th, 2009

June 11th, 2009

I'm back...

Jun. 11th, 2009 at 1:22 PM

Our daughter just left for the airport with my husband. I'm home crying my face off. I don't know why I always cry hysterically after she leaves. (Thank god we don't live in the same city -- I'd be a mess.) But for whatever reason, I always react this way.

Crying doesn't come naturally to me. There aren't many things that can make me cry. And my husband always says that if I do start to cry, people should start evacuating the area. Most of the time when I cry, it's just a swift transition into a homicidal rage.

But not when the kid leaves. This is a very different feeling of crying -- like some sense of loss. (Which is ridiculous -- she's 30 years old and we haven't lived together since she was 10 months old. While we talk or IM or webcam or email almost every day -- and usually for HOURS every day -- there's some weird physical reaction that hits me whenever she's actually in the same space and time with me. No one else affects me that way. Well, perhaps Fred -- but you know it's like the song: "How can I miss you if you won't go away??" I'm not sure I'd feel the same because I haven't ever had the experience.)

You know, I'm not even really sure why she came. Everyone else seems to just "get it" but I really don't. Like I say, it's not like we needed to catch up. I missed Skyping with her the past few days. I didn't know what to do with myself! (And despite being under the same roof, she and Fred kept up their fierce and furious Lexulous battles. I'd said "NO LEXULOUS" but they never take anything I say seriously.) The thing is, a year ago, she was a single woman with a cat. Since then, she's picked up two more cats (total = three), two dogs and a boy. I say "boy" because he's only 25 -- which seems young. And they just moved into a new loft a couple months back. If it were me, and I had a week off (her company asked all employees to take an unpaid week's furlough to try to avoid further layoffs), I'd have thought of nothing other than spending the time in my new home with my new family. As it is, wild horses can't drag me away from home for anything other than work purposes -- and even then, I'm willing to go without and do without to spend more time at home.

Her timing also couldn't have been better. As readers of this blog know, the farmhouse has been torn apart since Mina and I gave up the apartment at the end of April. We barely got our poop together in time for her arrival.

She did note that her trip had quite an effect on the boy. Apparently they've been enjoying a number of disagreements since moving in together a couple months back, including re: acceptable levels of household cleanliness. She said he wrote and thanked her for all she does around the place, which he never had the chance to appreciate until she wasn't there and wasn't doing it anymore. So I guess there's that. (By the end of the summer, he'll either be gone or totally in awe, as she's planning to go to Europe next month and to stay with her best friend in another state the month after that. The kid just didn't inherit the homebody gene from me. Must be a recessive trait.)

So anyway, I've already had a little nip of something. I plan to get totally stinky and squander the rest of today. I don't have to worry too much about cooking -- we have a TON of leftovers.

I'll be back on the job tomorrow!