Bachelor Weekend

J has taken the kids to Pennsylvania for the weekend, so I'm here at home alone.

Yes, I intend to take a shower as soon as I finish this blog.

I'm treating today as a mental health day. I intend to do some visiting and see people tomorrow, but today I'm going to stay in the house alone, read, write, clean, and take care of projects that are made exponentially more difficult when you have tiny humans underfoot. So that's what I've been doing all morning, except first I slept in. It was glorious.

I love getting up at 5:30 in the morning, except at 5:30 in the morning. At 5:30 in the morning I think it's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of and I hate everyone and everybody, especially my alarm clock. I have an actual old-fashioned alarm clock now because I'm trying to economize the battery life of my new iPhone better than my old one. I bought the alarm clock at the Houghton bookstore (minus a ten percent faculty discount) and J hates it even more than I do.

But this morning, my alarm didn't wake me up. I drifted in and out of sleep around 7:00 for a bit, then finally got up and went downstairs for coffee around 8, thoroughly enjoying the silence of the house. I had an unmolested breakfast at my desk and drank coffee for an hour while reading books. I dropped the car off for an oil change and went for a three mile run.

One of the more startling signs of my advancing age, by the way, has been the realization that I find myself more in sympathy with Calvin's Dad than Calvin while reading Calvin and Hobbes. It actually IS invigorating to go for a run in the cold rain first thing in the morning. And do you know what's great when you get back home? Yes, a big bowl of oatmeal hot off the stove. (J makes it with almonds and cut-up dried apricots.) And sitting in a comfortable chair with something to read at the end of the day isn't so bad either.

Anyhow, I practiced as loud as I pleased right in the middle of the living room once I got back, with a big stack of music and mutes all over the kitchen table.

Eating is a funny thing when you're in bachelor mode. I find that I usually don't do well remembering to prepare actual meals for myself, so I end up snacking on whatever requires the least amount of preparation throughout the day, usually nuts or crackers, and usually standing up or walking back and forth from my desk to the coffeepot. The kitchen table, meanwhile, becomes a catch-all for mail and papers and notebooks and scores and half-finished books. I have thus far resisted the temptation to just use one plate for all my food and one mug for all my coffee without ever giving it a proper washing, putting it away, and getting out a new plate.

As lazy as all that sounds, I've actually had a number of interesting projects for today. I'm working on archiving a lot of old electronic materials--saving photos that are only stored on a flash drive to a separate location, editing an unpublished book, and trying to retrieve some old documents from defunct laptops. I have lots of tabs up on the computer with titles like "How to batch-rename files" and "How to export your emails from Outlook." Probably none of it will work. I was exceedingly proud of myself for assigning my printer a static IP address (whatever that means) the other day, but it didn't stick. I'm also trying to figure out how to merge the two youtube channels with kid videos, since I didn't mean to create a second. (If anyone's wondering where all the videos have been going since the Thomides channel went dark, look here.)

So, it will be a quiet but productive day. If you are expecting to hear from me, I'll probably be emerging from my desk by early evening, a little lonely and ready for human company again. But in the meantime, I have a new novel to read, a fresh pot of coffee to drink, and lots of photos to upload.

Although I should probably get in the shower sooner rather than later.