Home alone... for real!

First of all, I will apologise in advance for any fuzziness in this post. It is virally-induced fuzziness & is temporary :)

Also, I finally have a reason to thank the autofill function on this site, since it made me realise that I'd already made a "Home alone..." post :) That one was after the first day of school last September, so I guess it sort of counts, but little did I know then what it really means to be home alone...

Or maybe, "little did I remember...", since, approximately a year ago yesterday, I had a premonition of what it would be like. The 5-6 grade classes at Brendan's school have a tradition of going to a nearby retreat centre/summer camp for an overnight before the end of the school year. Last year, as they & their gear all assembled in the parking lot to be distributed into cars, I realised that Brendan would be in this group in the coming year. I remember wondering what it would be like, or if he'd even go... He's not the overnight sort of guy. He's been to 2 sleepovers in his life- last year at the neighbour's birthday party & a couple years before at his best friend's house. OK, actually 3 of you count the night he spent at Grammie's when Charlie & I went to a B&B for our 10th anniversary, but he was only 2 1/2 & doesn't remember (Grammie does, though :).

As the campout plans filled the air, over the past few weeks, Brendan was definitely tentative about the whole thing. We wanted him to participate, of course, so Charlie tipped the scales by rearranging his scedule so that he could be one of the desperately-needed dad chaperones. The original plan had me going out for the day & leading some craft projects in the afternoon, & then Charlie & I switching after he got out of work. As time got closer Brendan really started looking forward to it, & even got into the buzz about who was doing what while there were there... As I mentioned in my previous post, he got sick over the weekend, so we kept him home from school on Monday & I picked him up at noon on Tuesday, all so that he would be healthy enough to go camping on Thursday. And he was :) What we did not foresee was my catching his virus & waking up Wednesday morning with a roaring sore throat... the cough soon followed. Brendan was slightly taken aback by the news that I wouldn't be driving him to camp, nor would I be there during the day, but being the sweetie that he is, he was more concerned about my health. When we assured him that dad would be there for the night, he was pretty close to ok with things. I let his teachers know on Wednesday that I was sick & received kind sympathy :) There were plenty of drivers & I managed to get the warp for a scarf on the school loom so that the kids could weave as a craft project (I taught Cherie how to weave a couple summers ago, so she could supervise). By the time Brendan got to school yesterday he was so caught up in the excitement that he lost all of his lingering worries & was good to go. Whew!

It was very, very weird to leave him, though. After leaving school I did my usual weekly shopping, & when I got home I realised that I didn't need to leave the house again for... days! I closed both garage doors after unloading the groceries. Weird. I kept remembering what Brendan's psychologist has been telling us about the necessary process of disconnecting, & really understood how difficult it's going to be for me. I guess it's really a good thing that I'm sick :) I was so tired by the morning actgivities that I went right to bed & slept for nearly 3 hours. I'd picked up some sushi for lunch & ate it at 2:30... normally Brendan & I would have just gotten home from school about then. I found the energy to do some more tie-dyeing (it's been pretty much an endless process lately, with boxes of dyes & clothing blanks arriving & being sucked into the 3-day process of applying the colours) & then rested for a bit by watching anime on veoh. Charlie called me right before he left work to go to camp. We both agreed that I'd have heard something if Brendan wasn't doing well- every adult there was packing a cell phone :) I imagined Charlie & his car-load arriving at camp & Brendan greeting him happily. (We found out on Tuesday that Brendan had volunteered Charlie to cook breakfast, tee hee, claiming that dad could make the best pancakes... Charlie was rather taken aback, not having made a pancake in some years, but decided to rise to the challenge. So after consulting with those who had gone last year, he loaded our griddle, potholders, & extra cooking oil into a big box & added it to his gear. What a guy! :)

I probably don't need to say how quiet the house seemed last night, how I got spooked by noises while I was in the shower, how I thought of my guys & wondered if Brendan had gotten the necessary down time in the afternoon so that he could make it through till campfire time... I had a nice, if quiet, evening. My favourite online puzzles, at the Conceptis site, always go up sometime Thursday evening so I did some puzzles. I watched some clips at TV in Japan, tidied up a bit... It turned out to be a good night to be alone, actually. Nobody woke up when I had coughing fits & Charlie wasn't disturbed when I got up a few times in the night. Since I wasn't worrying about bothering anyone, I probably slept better than I would have. I didn't get up until after 8:00 am... when I'd usually be at the door at school greeting everyone. Totally weird.

Charlie & Brendan will get home sometime bewteen 2:30 & 3:00... I can't wait to hear the stories :) I have more tie-dyeing to do, & more tidying up (Tomoko's mom is coming to visit tomorrow!!!). Oh, yeah, & I have to get well, too! I'll let you know how the camping went :)