Changes and Craziness

I am reading a book in which one of the two main characters gets a phone call after having had a baby, and when she learns it's her best friend on the phone, she exclaims in relief, "Thank God it's someone who doesn't need anything from me."

My life has taken on a life of its own, literally. Monday night, after an insane weekend and just the general craziness of being the one taking the General to the vanpool daily, I threw a nice little temper tantrum at 10 o'clock at night. I was not happy at not having literally any free time since the previous Thursday.

Life is crazy and I'm not in a good place when I have to get up at 5am. We had company all weekend, I sat in the dentist's office with the General for 3 hours on Friday, plus it was Easter AND I decided it was the perfect time to go to Ikea and get some much needed furniture to purchase and put together.

On top of all this, the back up hard drive on the General's computer seems to have a screw loose, and we're still trying to finish up the stupid inacessbile acquisitions class that he has to take for work. This essentially involves the two of us sitting around listening to what, to me anyway, is the most boring material on the planet and me clicking the "next" button. And we've been at it for approximately 15 hours.

So I was running up and down up and down the stairs on Monday, trying to help with the computer in between trying to watch Dancing With the Stars, which I still missed half of. Now that Runway is over and Lost is off the air until April, my TV watching is back at its regular low, but I do like DWTS. I even have the game for our Wii. Unfortunately, fate, the PC, and my husband had other plans.

So, I threw an all holy hissy fit, which got me exactly nowhere, because last night I was back clicking "next" for two hours.

This weekend Lucas and the StanClan came over and they helped move around the furniture in the General's office. Today is the first day I've let TomTom in here and he came roaring in expecting to go behind "his chair" and came to a screeching halt. I've got one pissed off bunny on my hands, folks. He wants his stuff back exactly the way he wants it and this is not going to fly with him.

Throwing new people into the mix, I am finding it ever more difficult to cook meals everyone likes (on top of one carnivore and one vegetarian, I've now got someone who won't eat chicken--the one meat the vegetarian considered eating for my sanity), learning I'm going to have to find ways of entertaining children in my child-free house besides "Watch TV, read a book, play the Wii, or visit the rabbit", getting the house clean, keeping up with reading and just having some time to relax. But everyone has been so good to us that I can hardly complain. Lucas didn't utter a single word of complaint when I made him haul boxes from Ikea and spend Easter morning building my new TV cabinet. The StanClan spent hours working on the computer and moving furniture and fixing the General's radio set up. Melissa brought us a lovely dessert for Easter so I didn't have to, and Joe had another dessert waiting for us when we arrived at Casa Cherepon-Galletta-Szabo Sunday evening.

Still, I need time to myself--damn that introvert! I really thrive on peace and quiet, and on those times to myself when I can just sit quietly, not have noise coming in, no TV, no radio, no phone ringing off the hook. Nothing. And I'm so lucky to have a husband who understands that I need that time, and that I haven't had any, and I want some.

So this weekend the cherry blossoms will be out and I will be out with them. It's the one thing I want to do and last year I remember it as such a peaceful time--me, my iPod, and my camera, walking the Tidal Basin. That's the plan for this year, and hopefully I'll get some more great shots and find some time to reconnect with myself. I'll probably ditch the iPod to enjoy the sounds of people around me enjoying the beautiful flowers and the fine weather (God willing), and enjoy one of the best reasons to live in DC.