I'm bored.
Ha! No, not really.
But kind of.
It's weird... see, I'm in California - at Stanford University, in fact - and the kids have been at their grandparents' house since Monday, and P is busily training to be an even more intimidating trial lawyer than he already is, and I am, well, idle.
I haven't been idle in a while, and I think I've forgotten how to handle it.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not a complaint.
Between the time the kids left with DD on Monday afternoon and the time I had to leave for my flight on Wednesday, I kept very, very busy. Friend, you would be so proud of me and my beautifully clean house. My heart races just thinking about it... I was tempted to take pictures, but I've since felt guilty about my last bit of boasting along those lines, so I refrained. (If you really need to see it, you are welcome to come visit; the kids get back Monday afternoon, so make it anytime before that or else you'll miss it and you'll think I'm a dirty, rotten liar and that my house never saw a Lysol wipe in its life. Which is SO not true. In fact, my house and Lysol wipes have a very, very close relationship...)
And the American economy is super proud of the shopping I did on Tuesday afternoon (and so is Discover - they may need to issue me a new card after all that energetic swiping!). I hope Ted Cruz is proud of my voting efforts, as well. I know that the library is glad I returned that stack of books...
And, of course, in addition to all of those incredibly important tasks, I had several things to watch from my Netflix queue, and that Redbox coupon to redeem... And then there was the Olympics! It was a busy couple of days, let me tell you!
Oh - and I probably shouldn't tell you this, so if you're sensitive to TMI, just skip to the next paragraph........... Still here? I knew you were just as morbidly curious about things as I am. I'm glad we share that bond. But I digress. The other thing I was going to shamelessly share is that I tried our huge jetted tub for the first time. And... It. Was. GLORIOUS. I read an entire book while soaking. I'm not even kidding.
So you see? I'm not usually idle. Very important things occupy my time.
Usually.
Queue my arrival at the airport.
And this is where it got. so. boring. I had with me a paperback and my Kindle (fully loaded), my phone and its apps and games and music and audiobooks, a fresh new journal with invitingly blank lines to fill, and three magazines. But I was just bored! And none of those things sounded at all interesting to me - not even a little bit.
In case you don't believe me about that (skeptical reader that you are), maybe this'll change your mind: I even visited with two different fellow passengers on my flight. At length. Now, I know that may not sound weird - perhaps there are those of you who actually enjoy the experience of being trapped in small talk for more than an hour with a total stranger who may or may not smell like burps. But I don't. I'm just a mean person, I guess. But people, I was bored. And one of the passengers I got to know was SEVEN. Our conversational topics consisted mostly of her dog Jack and the movie Labyrinth. You know, you really haven't lived until you've analyzed a crazy David Bowie movie with a hyper seven-year-old girl swigging a hot chocolate from the in-flight cart. (Incidentally, the other passenger was an elderly lady from East Texas, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to hear about her life, her family, and her travels.) (Also, I did not convert either of those passengers. I say that because I don't think I've ever heard anyone share stories about people they meet on flights unless there was a conversion in the process. Sorry to disappoint. If it makes any difference, I don't think either party was in need of converting.)
Moving on. You know how coming to a new city, especially one like San Francisco, can be so thrilling and full of excitement and anticipation and fun new adventures? Well, it's not like there weren't interesting characters on the Super Shuttle, or beautiful vistas on the drive out to Stanford, or amazing things to see and do on campus, but that sense of boredom just followed me like a silly black cloud through the next morning (which is today). I sat in the campus coffee shop this morning, staring at my bag and just thinking, "What do I do?"
So friends, this is what I did.
I rented a bike! HA! And my day got a whole lot better.
I took the "walking tour" of campus (on my bike).
I rode over to the nearby shopping mall and ate a baguette in front of Tiffany's while watching other moms wrestle their children and strollers in and out of shops.
I even smelled some roses. Or whatever these are. Aren't they gorgeous? And HUGE!
And now I'm getting a little work done on my ever-increasing photo collection, taking in some live jazz at the coffee shop, and nursing my water cup that I saved from my visit here this morning.
It's not too bad, this idleness... you know, once I found something to do. :)
But kind of.
It's weird... see, I'm in California - at Stanford University, in fact - and the kids have been at their grandparents' house since Monday, and P is busily training to be an even more intimidating trial lawyer than he already is, and I am, well, idle.
I haven't been idle in a while, and I think I've forgotten how to handle it.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not a complaint.
Between the time the kids left with DD on Monday afternoon and the time I had to leave for my flight on Wednesday, I kept very, very busy. Friend, you would be so proud of me and my beautifully clean house. My heart races just thinking about it... I was tempted to take pictures, but I've since felt guilty about my last bit of boasting along those lines, so I refrained. (If you really need to see it, you are welcome to come visit; the kids get back Monday afternoon, so make it anytime before that or else you'll miss it and you'll think I'm a dirty, rotten liar and that my house never saw a Lysol wipe in its life. Which is SO not true. In fact, my house and Lysol wipes have a very, very close relationship...)
And the American economy is super proud of the shopping I did on Tuesday afternoon (and so is Discover - they may need to issue me a new card after all that energetic swiping!). I hope Ted Cruz is proud of my voting efforts, as well. I know that the library is glad I returned that stack of books...
And, of course, in addition to all of those incredibly important tasks, I had several things to watch from my Netflix queue, and that Redbox coupon to redeem... And then there was the Olympics! It was a busy couple of days, let me tell you!
Oh - and I probably shouldn't tell you this, so if you're sensitive to TMI, just skip to the next paragraph........... Still here? I knew you were just as morbidly curious about things as I am. I'm glad we share that bond. But I digress. The other thing I was going to shamelessly share is that I tried our huge jetted tub for the first time. And... It. Was. GLORIOUS. I read an entire book while soaking. I'm not even kidding.
So you see? I'm not usually idle. Very important things occupy my time.
Usually.
Queue my arrival at the airport.
And this is where it got. so. boring. I had with me a paperback and my Kindle (fully loaded), my phone and its apps and games and music and audiobooks, a fresh new journal with invitingly blank lines to fill, and three magazines. But I was just bored! And none of those things sounded at all interesting to me - not even a little bit.
In case you don't believe me about that (skeptical reader that you are), maybe this'll change your mind: I even visited with two different fellow passengers on my flight. At length. Now, I know that may not sound weird - perhaps there are those of you who actually enjoy the experience of being trapped in small talk for more than an hour with a total stranger who may or may not smell like burps. But I don't. I'm just a mean person, I guess. But people, I was bored. And one of the passengers I got to know was SEVEN. Our conversational topics consisted mostly of her dog Jack and the movie Labyrinth. You know, you really haven't lived until you've analyzed a crazy David Bowie movie with a hyper seven-year-old girl swigging a hot chocolate from the in-flight cart. (Incidentally, the other passenger was an elderly lady from East Texas, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to hear about her life, her family, and her travels.) (Also, I did not convert either of those passengers. I say that because I don't think I've ever heard anyone share stories about people they meet on flights unless there was a conversion in the process. Sorry to disappoint. If it makes any difference, I don't think either party was in need of converting.)
Moving on. You know how coming to a new city, especially one like San Francisco, can be so thrilling and full of excitement and anticipation and fun new adventures? Well, it's not like there weren't interesting characters on the Super Shuttle, or beautiful vistas on the drive out to Stanford, or amazing things to see and do on campus, but that sense of boredom just followed me like a silly black cloud through the next morning (which is today). I sat in the campus coffee shop this morning, staring at my bag and just thinking, "What do I do?"
So friends, this is what I did.
I rented a bike! HA! And my day got a whole lot better.
I took the "walking tour" of campus (on my bike).
I rode over to the nearby shopping mall and ate a baguette in front of Tiffany's while watching other moms wrestle their children and strollers in and out of shops.
I even smelled some roses. Or whatever these are. Aren't they gorgeous? And HUGE!
And now I'm getting a little work done on my ever-increasing photo collection, taking in some live jazz at the coffee shop, and nursing my water cup that I saved from my visit here this morning.
It's not too bad, this idleness... you know, once I found something to do. :)
So.
ReplyDeleteJealous.