Home

I didn't think about how strange it would be for Doug when he got home -- the sudden change of pacing, different demands, the kitties, me. Tried to give him some breathing room, some time to plug into the computer for a bit, to reassess the world. It was a nostalgic homecomming reminiscent of all those trips back and forth where you forget some of the little details between visits. He was only gone two weeks but it seems like longer since I've crammed full the days, and to him, it seems like longer since the day he left Spring starting bubbling up. Now he's back and everything is in full bloom and more than a bit foreign. I've done some cleaning, some re-arranging and the apartment, when he came back, must've seemed more like I'd taken it over -- it didn't even smell like him anymore.

My friend Kathy has a husband that for the 28 years of their marriage has traveled frequently on government business and when he wasn't traveling, he worked at an office 4 hours away so he just lived in the hotel all week and came home on the weekend. He's getting out of that now, and working towards retirement. She says if he gets under foot much more they'll end up divorced. She just can't take too much of him being around, it cramps her style and gets on her nerves. Of course this past few weeks I've made my own bedtimes, left whenever I wanted, got to be lazy when I wanted and socialized with my friends so much... I can see her point. At the same time, I think two weeks was plenty and I'm rather tired of self-indulgent "me time". I missed my baby.

But I think the cycle of codependency has passed, and for that I am gratefull. Every now and then that whole "healthy non-psycho relationship" thing just leaves me in awe.

Today is tax day, whee! I filed mine earlier in the week so I didn't have to join the throngs at the post office. After 20 minutes of "what do you see now? what road are you on?" with my younger brother, I got him over here at 10:20 in order for me to review his ammendments and show him how to (this is cute) write a check in order to pay them. Actually, I wrote the check and paid his Federal and State, then showed him how to do it in the future and keep his registry up to date. I know I'm really one to speak, but he at least needs to learn how to do it before he can slack off. Devin may be moving back home with Mom -- he's had some problems lately that I won't go into just yet. It felt good to be a big sister and help him and tell him to get himself caught up then worry about owing me.

Of course, then Doug had to go find an open post office to drop them off -- brave, brave, man.