My First Weekend as a Single
It may sound strange, but this past weekend was my first weekend as a single since my divorce three and a half years ago. The ex finally got his dearest wish and got the supervision clause stricken from the visitation schedule. So the kids left my house at 8 on Saturday morning and didn’t come home until 7:30 Sunday night.
It was weird. I had a lot planned for this weekend, so it wasn’t too depressing, but it was definitely awkward. On Saturday, I had to go to the bank and the grocery before heading to a church planning retreat. My plan was to head home when the retreat was over and do some housework, but I got lost in our local forest and, when I finally found my way to the freeway, I ended up behind some sort of VIP caravan, complete with police escort keeping the traffic on the freeway at a safe distance from the VIP vehicles. So I got home about 5 instead of at 3. Still, I deep-cleaned all the bedrooms and changed the bed linens. I was too tired by 10 to lie awake; I slept deeply until 8 Sunday morning.
Sunday was harder. I had church, and that’s when it hit me. When I looked down from the choir loft and didn’t see my kids sitting with their church grandmas. When the children came down for children’s sermon and my kids weren’t there to jostle their way to the teachers’ side, and then weren’t there to cause a scrum at the door to leave for children’s church.
I took myself out to lunch. I couldn’t bear the thought of eating at my empty kitchen table. I went to Macaroni Grill and had calamari fritti, chicken scalloppine, grilled asparagus, and strawberry zabaglione. Then I came home and cleaned the bathrooms and did laundry. Took out the trash. Had a brilliant idea and hustled to Office Depot for some foam mounting board to re-hang our star charts. It looks marvellous. And then the kids came home. Dirty, tired, and immeasurably happy.
Gad, I missed them!