The calm after the storm

My desperation should be mounting. I haven't had a date in, what, almost a WEEK? A whole, blissful, quiet, uneventful week.

I can't remember being this calm about my romantic life except after breaking up with someone. After every break up, even the ones that leave me sobbing and heartbroken, I always breathe a little sigh of relief. As though, whew, now I can get back to my real life.

That's how I feel. Now I can get back to my real life. Which is very busy, vaguely productive and rife with possibilities.

And it's not like I'm completely alone. I have my friends. And I have Miss Tabitha (the "miss" is a southernism I picked up from KJ and Pele). Recently, I started letting her sleep in my room again. I needed the company. We seem to have come to an understanding. She waits to wake me up until 6:00 am and at the first sign of bad behavior on her part (biting my feet, tapping the picture frames askew, knocking things off the bookshelves) she is directed immediately towards the exit. Most of the night, she sleeps at the foot of the bed, sometimes touching my feet, sometimes not. She was banned from the room for about six months and her re-admittance is conditional on her good (or somewhat good) behavior.

It's not just having her as a companion that makes me feel "unalone," though. It's that she depends on me. She is a constraint. I can't just run away from home. I have to take care of Tabitha. She needs me--at least for the food. But she seems to not mind having me around too much either.

My friends are great, but none of them will cry for half an hour if I don't give them their breakfast as soon as I wake up. Tabitha waits to get very noisy until 8:30 or 9:00 am. Sometimes she is still ignored, but is always fed the highest quality cat food eventually.

I went camping with Pele last summer and I usually woke up first and got the coffee started. We both drank coffee, but coffee was more her priority. (I can live without it, though I like it. Pele much prefers to have that one or two cups). Pele never cried once. Then again, I never made her wait.

What's up for the weekend?
Friday: swing dancing with CK.
Saturday morning: farmer's market, make tomato salad.
Saturday late morning/early afternoon: little sister (Kennedy Center Open House, I think)
Saturday early evening: Pele's cookout.
Saturday night (optional): kickball party.
Sunday morning: book group.
Sunday afternoon: volunteer cooking gig.

And sometime in there I need to vacuum, mop the kitchen and make the house presentable for Spesh's visit next week.

Will you be upset if I don't post? I hope not, 'cause it's unlikely to happen.

Grateful for: Tabitha and friends who don't cry for breakfast.