In honor of:
-Mark’s moving in
-and our Domestic Partnership
-and us heading off to England and then Orcas Island
-and Miss T coming to stay here while we’re gone
-and Mark finishing recording the Book of Joby audiobook just the other day
-and all my publishing goings-on (anthology, collection, Eel River, just for starters)
-and the turn of the seasons
we, together with Miss T, hosted a little party yesterday. It was supposed to be a barbecue, but since yesterday was the only day this week when it rained, we punted and went to Costco for roasted chickens and had an indoor party.
It was lots of fun! Although parties are also exhausting. I was feeling all stressy getting ready for it–too many things to do, not enough time!–until I reminded myself that people I liked were coming over to eat and drink with me, and that that was a Good Thing, and I should just chill.
And of course the first guests arrived fashionably late, and we still weren’t ready, and that was fine, because see above, re: friends.
Actually I have been way stressed out this whole last week, feeling like my to-do list is neverending, never enough time to do all the things, etc etc; but then the party happened, and yes, it was exhausting, but also great, but parties, you know, it’s hard to have a good quiet conversation with anyone, because too many people; and today I realized that actually there is a lot crossed off on this list, and still more than a week before we fly to London; and yeah, we’ll be gone all winter, but three months really isn’t that long, we’ll be back home before we know it (and what an adventure it’s going to be, being innkeepers!); and, well, there are worse problems to have, right? So I started feeling a bit better.
I was so tired last night, I had trouble falling asleep. Does that happen to anyone else? Where you’re so tired, you’re almost scared to lose consciousness? And you keep startling back awake? Well eventually I did sleep, and OH it was good.
Then this morning I got up and did yoga, for the first time in days; and it was a lovely day, sunny, pleasant; I organized my desk, and started one of the to-do list tasks that had been making me particularly nervous (it’s substantially but not entirely done; I think I can wrap it up tomorrow); and then I embarked on one of the last big projects before we leave, and made some nice headway on it before a good friend knocked on the door and walked in, looked around at the peaceful empty clean house, and said, “…was the party today?”
“Yesterday,” I said.
“Oh god,” she said, “I need a glass of wine.”
So we sat down with all the leftover wine from yesterday, and we had the good Girl Talking; and after a while Mark came down from organizing his office (pics soon!) and joined us; and we had exactly the long, relaxed, marvelous conversation that you can never have at parties. So I’m so glad she got the day wrong. (She had RSVP’d ‘no’ because reasons, but then decided at the last minute {or, well, 24 hours after the last minute} that a party might be just the thing she needed after all; and, well, it all worked out.)
And then it was evening and Mark and I decided to go out for a nice relaxing movie. But we saw Gravity instead. 🙂 Which, oh my god, incredible, but now we’re both pacing around the house burning off nervous energy. And I poured another glass of wine.
There will be more to tell soon but that’s quite enough for now!