Alone Time by Kat Magendie

Sometimes it’s nice to be alone, completely alone. Although I have plenty of “alone-time,” seeing as I have no children at home, I work from home so there are no crowds of people around me, and my husband mostly stays out of my way when I’m working. But! He is still here, he still walks about, does his thing, takes up more than half the bed, says the answers to Jeopardy aloud, gets up earlier than I do and “quietly” (not) goes about the little log house doing whatever; or he cooks dinner, which I should not be complaining about, however, there are times I want no food smells, no clanging pots, no crumbs or drips he has not noticed that I clean up. I cannot in good conscience complain about my husband, for I know he does many things other husbands do not do, like his own laundry(!), however, there are still times when I wish to be completely alone, as in the house all to myself for more than a couple of hours.

Which is why, when Roger went to Baton Rouge and I stayed behind, the first thing I did that very day the left was to clean the house. Yeah, funny, huh? But it was as if I was preparing the house for Me. For My ways. I dusted, vacuumed, wiped, sponged, aired out, and I washed every item on the bed. Then, when all that was done, I sat down on the couch, with a salad, and watched television with candles burning in my spotless house. That night, I slithered into my lavender-scented sheets, and at first I scrunched “to my side,” but then! Wait! I had the bed to myself, and I lolled about, throwing my arms and legs out willy nilly. The next morning, I made my coffee, wiped up any drips, and admired how clean and orderly things still look hours and hours later. Wow!

Yes, there are times when I am grateful to be completely alone. I wonder, and I don’t see why not, if my husband feels this way when I go out of town and he has the house to himself. I imagine he thinks, “Ha! I can make food fingerprints, dribbles, and crumbs without her tsking me. I can have real sausage, and bacon! Ha! And I’ll watch Jeopardy fifteen hours a day and shout out all the answers. I’ll listen to my Richard Harris album that she detests. I’ll not shave. I get the whole bed to myself, including the covers!” Gratitude for alone time—it’s an equal opportunity thing.