parents' month off

And the bliss continues ...

Bliss, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. For me, it's:

• being able to think, in peace, for more than two minutes at a time -- a train of thought, as it were, that does not get derailed at every crossing
  
• gathering all the old clothes, school bags, and other stuff I've been hanging on to for the past year until I could get around to loading it in the car and taking it to the local charity
  
• cleaning out and reorganizing all the junk drawers in the house -- there are 16 of them! -- some of which have not been given the time of day since long before we moved to this apartment five years ago. Each of these drawers has a mess of assorted items (paper clips, envelopes, tax returns from 1994, a little baggie of hair from my daughter's first haircut), all my day planners from about 1984, etc.
  
• having a conversation with Mr. Squarepeg that proceeds from the beginning to the middle and then concludes with a sense of mind-settling completion, not having been stopped several times en route by the chatter brilliant statements or queries of a third party
  
• getting my roots done without feeling like the two hours at the hair salon is an egregious theft of my precious, limited playtime
  
• reading Harry Potter whenever I feel like it, including while getting my roots painted
  
• not asking "what do you want for lunch/dinner?" 20 times a day, while either having all menu suggestions greeted with "No!" or being ignored until 11pm when I've already collapsed on my bed
  
• having the computer to myself, free of the msn-obsessed being that usually occupies it while endlessly downloading music and any old spyware that grabs her interest
  
• leaving the house whenever I want, coming home whenever I want, guilt-free
  
• blogging uninterrupted
  
• the delicious feeling of missing someone, and looking forward to their return

And that's just the first week!