Julie Asks – Am I an Adult Yet?

Five days in LA – no kids, no husband, no work, no responsibility.  It took me about 36 hours to let my shoulders drop, take my thumb out of my mouth and genuinely relax.  It has taken me about 12 hours to stress back out.  Just like working out – that which takes weeks, no, months, to achieve is lost in days, no hours.

My J-cation (that’s a conjunction of Julie and vacation) was spectacular.  The weather was perfect (I even came home with some color), I managed to incorporate culture (a visit to The Getty), exercise (a long walk from the Santa Monica Pier to Venice Beach and back), therapy (some damage at The Grove’s flagship Nordstrom’s),  necessity (when boarding at Logan I noticed that my glasses were broken so had to buy a new pair in LA.  Unfortunately, I had to find a one hour place and now, despite the Ralph Lauren  inscription on the temple, am stuck with way less cool glasses than I had before!) and philanthropy (Big Sunday).  I was on no one’s schedule but my own.  I slept until I woke up (granted, I woke up at 7 every morning but, in actuality, it was 10 assuming my body was still on east coast time), wore what I wanted to (no work dress code to adhere to) and didn’t have to play the role of chauffeur (my Uncle did that!)  It was awesome.

My return trip was timed perfectly.  We left LA at 1:35 pm (which allowed us time to have an indulgent breakfast at an LA institution - the name escapes me – but the specialty of the house was waffles topped with, ready for this?, chicken wings.  I opted out of that offering and went with the omelet and hashbrows…yum!)  and arrived in Boston at 10 pm.  By the time our luggage made its way down the conveyer belt and we headed out to the taxi stand it was 10:45 pm.  We pulled up to the house just after 11pm and it was instantly clear that my entire house was asleep.  What a terribly civilized way to re-enter. 

I spent a little time going through my 97 emails and catching up on my Facebook Scrabulous games.  My body had settled into Pacific time and sleep just wasn’t on the agenda.  After putzing around the house for a little while I finally went upstairs and was psyched that Rich had fallen asleep with the t.v. on.  Here’s why – had he fallen asleep without it on, my turning it on would have woken, and irritated, him.  Since it was already on I found myself with full clicker control.  So what did I settle on?  “Letterman”, nope, “Leno”, nope, “Frasier”, nope.  No, I settled on “Intervention”.  I then proceeded to become completely involved in the train wreck of a life of “Sara, the 24 year old meth addict” which kept me up until 2 in the morning.  I then dreamt weird stuff, yet not nearly as strange as Rich’s dream nor, I am sure, whatever goes on in “Sara’s” head. 

This morning was as calm as I can ever remember.  The boys were excited to see me (that was nice) and totally cooperative.  I was psyched to have had the foresight to take the day off so was able to walk to school, dropped of the G-man and continue on to walk for another hour.  Ahhh.  It was then that I decided for sure on that which I had been tossing around all weekend – I like me better when I am not working.  At least not working every day.  And not being able to wear jeans.  My being home today afforded me the opportunity to do all the laundry, straighten up the house (despite Rich’s best efforts, there was “stuff” everywhere.  Which is ironic since his first activity upon arrival home every night is to start, well, straightening).  I did a great food shopping- including three dinners! – and had swordfish, squash and broccoli salad at the ready when everyone got home.  I just cannot pull that off when I’ve been at work, been with the kids and contemplated suicide.   

So now, with my J-cation already a fading memory I feel the stress building in my shoulders, have the Sunday night blues (I know it is Tuesday night, but tomorrow is my Monday, workwise) and am, yet again,  saddled with trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up.  I’m only 43…