Michael has spent the last five days in San Francisco for a teacher conference. We had talked about me tagging along, like he does when I go to conferences, but we’re living frugal to pay down some credit cards. Also, Michael’s not ever really travelled alone like that; at least, not that I know of. I told him it would be good for him to have an adventure of his own. Then I drummed my fingers together with glee over all the alone time I was going to have at home.

Look, I love Michael, but loving is easy. Living with someone is hard.

I was looking forward to a few days of eating what I wanted and watching what I wanted on TV and doing whatever I wanted. And I did that. One night, I made a sheet pan dinner of roasted broccoli and green beans with crispy tofu all tossed with a miso/tamari sauce. Another night, I mixed in sautéed mushrooms, peas, spinach and smoked trout into a box mix of mac-n-goat cheese. I told Dr. Mary about that one and she asked “Where did you get this?” and then she was shocked when I said “I made it!” One night, I had tofu scramble with black beans and sweet potato. I ate all of the healthy meals that I crave. What’s funny is that when I go out of town, Michael gets really excited about eating fried chicken while I’m gone. He goes out of town and I get really excited about eating tofu.

I finished watching all of the first season of High Fidelity. Then I made it about half way through the most recent season of Jack Ryan. I went to the Container Store and I didn’t even need anything at the Container Store. I just slowly roamed up and down the isles in a zenned out trance (it is the most soothing place on earth). Then I bought a giant lazy Susan for under the kitchen sink, a place that I have been avoiding do to it’s supreme grossness. That spot was so gross that I just kept pretending that it did not exist. Well, I finally stopped pretending and did something about the grossness. I threw out empty glass bottles and empty spray bottles that had been saved with the intention of repurposing but were never repurposed. I scrubbed the cabinet and then put my new giant lazy Susan under the sink. I placed a small metal bowl under the pipes to catch possible leaks before they make a real mess and organized the cleaners in the lazy Susan. Now I just open both cabinet doors and look inside for no reason because it’s so pretty.

But then something I hadn’t expected occurred.

I sat down on the couch with my bowl of dinner Sunday night and realized that I missed Michael. Things had happened and I missed being able to tell him about those things. I missed his face and I missed the amount of space he takes up on the couch. I missed our usual evening routine where we pick one show to watch while eating dinner. I missed the way he kisses me good night, tucking me into bed and then saying “good night dog!” to Josephine as he pats her on the head, before turning out my light and shutting my door. I even missed our morning routine. He’s not a morning person, but we always send each other off for our day with love. I missed all of those things. Huh…who’d a thunk it. So I was pretty happy and grateful to see his face when he walked through the door Wednesday evening. I greeted him with a kiss and big hug. Then Josephine came in and freaked out with a serious case of happy wiggles because I wasn’t the only one to miss him.

Albus came in and then promptly turned right back around and left because he’s a jerk and misses NO ONE!