Finally. A day to myself. Well, kind of.

It’s been an eventful week. An eventful month, in fact. My partner and I are getting our house remodeled. Not the whole thing. Just the most critical pieces first – most of the kitchen (not the cabinets), all of the 2.5 baths, an exterior paint job, new electrical, a generator for when the power goes out (as it does, in this part of the world), and landscaping.

Finally, we’ll have the house we were supposed to have, 15 years ago. I had it all planned out. I had a boatload of money. I had my trajectory mapped.

Then the health problems hit. For both my partner and me. And everything got put on hold until we got it sorted.

It’s taken nearly 20 years, but we finally got it figured out.

And now it’s time to go “pedal to the metal” and haul ass on getting stuff taken care of.

Oh, and line up alternative lodging for 2 months, while it’s all happening.

It’s been quite the undertaking. And at the same time, I’m working full-time at a job I detest, dealing with utterly mindless people who will tax the sainted patience of any sentient creature…  taking care of my partner who’s becoming more disabled every month, trying to find ways to get her the help she needs, and keep her spirits up… attending school to finish my Bachelors, so I have actual choices in the working world… and of course my own side projects which are the only thing that actually get me into a flow state, these days. My “side projects” are actually some of the most challenging heavy lifts, these days, as I have to learn a lot of new things and push myself to do things like talk to strangers on the phone and do a lot of math.

Sheesh. Yeah. It’s a lot. But it’s how I roll. And if I don’t do any of these things, my life devolves.

And we can’t have that.

So, yesterday, I got a lot done. I was up early, got my partner packed and transported to an all-day event she was helping to facilitate. Doing the roadie thing takes a lot of energy. And there’s always something else to do, until everything is completely settled. Then I went to a nearby university and made myself comfortable in the library, where I studied for a few hours. I met up with a friend for lunch, who just happened to be in the vicinity, and we had a nice chat. It’s always good to actually see people in person, when you interact a lot online. And the thing that makes it good is that I get to experience a real-life encounter – it’s a totally different energy than chatting online. And I’m a somewhat different person in that dynamic, which is always interesting. I also caught up with someone else I’ve been doing some projects with.

After the peopling, I was back to my studies. I made great progress and got a lot done. Around 6 p.m. I left the library and went scouting for food. I found a promising restaurant on Google Maps, but when I got there, it was packed. And all the good options around it seemed to be packed, too, so I ducked into a little soup-sandwich-salad-coffee-tea type of place, and I got myself a sandwich and some hot tea. Everyone around me in the library and in town was coughing and hacking, so I had my tea and picked out a corner to camp out in.

At 7, the food place closed, so I headed out and picked up my partner. I had no idea where in was in the world, so I let Siri tell me where to go… and “she” took me through all kinds of back roads (not all of them paved), where there wasn’t much of a signal. Oh my. That was fun. Well, I had time to spare, in case I got lost… And it was interesting to see how many cars were out on the road in that somewhat removed area. Even on the unpaved roads. Well, it was Saturday night…

I got back to the venue around 7:30, and they weren’t supposed to be done till 8:00, so I camped out in an outer area, studying some more and getting a bit more work done. Very productive, actually. Of course, it was a matter of hurry-up-and-wait, and it took another hour for the event to wrap up. And then another hour, while everybody was networking and connecting and doing their communal thing. We eventually got out of there around 10 p.m., and I was home and in bed by 11:15.

Last night, as I was thinking about today, I was under the impression that I could actually take the day off today. Lie in bed. Read. Relax. Catch up on my very lacking sleep. I made a short lists of things I absolutely need to do today, and I left it at that. But none of it was true. I have a lot I can’t NOT do today. I have to go to Lowe’s to talk to people about countertops. I need to research appliances. I need to schedule junk pickup. I need to schedule my coming week(s), period, and figure out when we’re going to get things done. We leave for our interim lodging in 25 days, and there’s a ton of stuff to do in the interim.

I also need to do some additional investigation for my projects. I need to work on my assignment for school. I need to buy a vacuum cleaner. I need to fulfill some other standing obligations. And I need to put away the outside fake Christmas tree, which has been shining cheerily (it doesn’t look fake at all!) on the back deck for the past three months, but got blown over by the wind on Friday. It’s lying there like a battlefield casualty, and I need to put it up, till I bring it out in another 9 months.

So much for my “day to myself”. Ha!

Well, actually, this day is for myself, because every single thing I’m doing will benefit me in some way – directly or indirectly. But regardless of who it benefits, all of it needs to get done.

What I think about it, has nothing to do with anything. Stuff just has to get done.

And then I can check all that sh*t off my list and declare Victory!!!

That’ll be fun.

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