Me Time

Last night, like just about every other weeknight, I was home alone. My fiance, Beau, works nights now, so I have the apartment to myself 4 nights a week. I guess that isn't really all that much, since that leaves three nights that he is there with me, or we are out and about. It seems like a lot of time. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Here's what I did last night. Granted, I got home early because of the icy weather, but this really is a pretty typical night.

-Watched Gilmore Girls on ABC Family
-Watched My Wife and Kids on ABC Family
-Got bored with My Wife and Kids, and decided to vacuum.
-Picked up everything off the floor and commenced vacuuming.
-Sat back down to have a smoke.
-Looked at how filthy the coffee table was
-Got Fantastik and cleaned the coffee table.
-Took the Fantastik back to the kitchen and noticed a sink full of dirty dishes.
-Washed dishes.
-Grandma called and we talked for a LONG time.
-Simultaneously watched "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" and "The Rachel Maddow Show"
-Called Querida as soon as I hung up with my Grandma to tell her about a study they were talking about on TV regarding romantic comedies. Yes, movies. Apparently, they set "unrealistic expectations" and "oversimplify" the process of falling in love. I could have told them that for free. Hel-lo, I was once a single woman in my early twenties who spent long Saturdays with the likes of Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts.
-Hung up, smoked another cigarette and went to sleep.

*Somewhere in there I had a dinner of frozen bean burritos topped with Pasturized Processed American Cheese Food Slices.

There are variations to this routine, of course. Some evenings are more cleaning oriented than others. Like a good little woman, I told my fiance the hard worker that I would take care of all the housework during the week so we wouldn't have to worry about it on the weekends and we could spend more time together. I regret saying this often.

Some evenings, I read. I have been super into Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries featuring the badass heroine Sookie Stackhouse. Sound familiar? Yeah, if you watched "True Blood" on HBO, it would. These are the books that the series is based upon. While the show is awesome, the books are a different and wonderful kind of awesome. You should read them. Now.

Sometimes I play Rock Band. I have been working on my guitar skills. I can now play any song you want (even the really difficult ones) on the Easy setting. I was moving on to Medium last week, but I lost my motivation.

That being said, I spend a lot of time with myself these days. When I tell people this, I get one of two reactions. "Aw, that sucks. You must be really lonely," or "Wow, it must be awesome to have all that free time without Beau around." The real truth is somewhere in between. Sure, I would never have done as much reading as I have been lately or practiced as much rock Band or have as clean of an apartment as I do with him around every night. But I definitely miss him when CSI is on and when it's time to go to sleep. On the bright side, it makes that wonderful weekend time that much more special. I think I'll go smoke that cigartette I never got around to last night. Did you guys notice that?