Alana had to go to Hollywood for a business trip.  She left on Monday morning, which is harder than it sounds!  She likes to sleep a little later than 5:30 AM on most days, so getting up that early was a challenge for her.  I promised her I’d help her get out the door on-time, so I jumped out of bed at 5:30 ready to help her with her luggage.  She told me to go back to bed, but I just kept saying, “but I promised to help you!”  She explained that she still had to wash her face and do her hair and that I just needed to go back to bed.  So I did that and fell asleep until she was ready to walk out the door at 6:50.  I again jumped out of bed to help her with her luggage only to be told that she already took it to her car!  So my help consisted of waking up twice when I wasn’t needed and walking her to the door when she had to go.

Here’s our daily routine in a nutshell – I come home at around 5:30 every day, we spend 15 minutes or so reconnecting, we have dinner, and then she sends me to my man cave by saying “Go to your hole!”  We then spend the rest of the evening mostly by ourselves, but with frequent visits on commercial breaks.  Sometimes, she joins me in the man cave for a TV show of her choosing.  We have a great system that encourages freedom with periodic togetherness.

Now that she’s gone from Monday through Thursday, I get to do whatever the hell I want!  If I want to leave a light on in a room I’m not in, I’m going to leave the damn light on!  If I want to pee with the door open, I’m going to pee with the damn door open!  I might even leave the damn seat up!  I’m a rebel!  On a recent phone call, she asked me if I turned on the air conditioner.  I said, “It’s March!  I opened the damn windows!”  What the hell is wrong with that woman?

So Monday night arrives and I have the house to myself.  What did I do?  I mowed the lawn! That took less than an hour, I then had dinner, surfed the web, and watched TV in the Cave. Even though I could have watched TV wherever I damn well pleased, I was still in the Cave!   Going upstairs periodically made me remember she wasn’t there.

Tuesday, I spent the evening going to trivia at the Village Tavern in Montgomery.  You would think that I am doing that because she is gone and I “get to go out.”  When she’s home, she will wish I would stay home but she never complains when I go out.  Most of the time, I would rather stay home with her rather than drag her out somewhere she won’t enjoy as much as I will.  The one place I know she’ll usually go is Go Bananas Comedy Club which is where we had our first date and it’s always a good time.  I came home Tuesday night and I wasn’t able to tell her about my trivia expertise!

Wednesday night is always my run with Team in Training.  She is usually out on Wednesdays going to her tennis lessons, so we aren’t together until 9:00 or so.  This particular Wednesday, I was home early because no one I was running with wanted to go out for a beer! I came home, had some dinner, went to my Cave and watched TV.

She comes home on Thursday and she’ll be there when I get home.  When I get home, I’m going to tell her, “Bitch, you better step off – I’m going to do what I want!  And then I’ll make her dinner.  We’ll reconnect for maybe 20 minutes this time, and she’ll say, “Go to your hole!” But this time, I’ll know that she’ll be there when I come upstairs.  It’s pathetic, I know, but I’m still gonna do what I damn well please!  I just damn well please want to hang with my baby!