Dress Rehearsal

My daughter’s spring musical practice is in full swing which means that between the hours of 6:00 and 9:00 p.m., it’s just Tripp and me at home.

It wasn’t so bad last semester when she was at practice because I was busy with getting things ready for the holidays.  Now it’s just so quiet and I have no idea what to do with myself.  I’m sure there is laundry to be folded, something to be cleaned, or drawers that need to be organized, but I just can’t get fired up to do that.   I know part of the problem is this time of year.  When it’s nice out we spend a lot more time outdoors.  We love walking the dogs in the evening and hanging out in the pool.  We’re a lot more social too.  But right now we’re pretty much homebodies.

I think back to when Tripp and I were first married.  (Don’t worry…we’re not going down the rabbit hole of nostalgia here.) We lived in a tiny apartment, had one TV with basic cable, and about the most exciting thing we did during the week was go to the dollar movies at the Carmike on Tuesdays.

Yeah, we were real party animals.

Nowadays, even at home though there are so many more outlets for spending time…right at our fingertips.  The endless bounty of the internet, books online, movies on demand, and (can I get a woohoo!) we have Bravo TV!

Kelsey and I are all about Bravo.  The problem is that it’s not nearly as fun to watch Kyle and Camille go at it by myself.  (Team Kyle!)  There’s no one to laugh at my hilarious NeNe impressions.  And there’s no one to fill me in on the back story of the Patti and her crew on the Millionaire Matchmaker.

It’s like dress rehearsal for next year when she goes off to college.

So just for grins, a little earlier this afternoon I Googled empty nest syndrome and it returned at least a zillion websites devoted to the subject.  So get this – Apparently, I’m not the first mother to have her baby leave the nest!  Shocking!!

There were tons of articles and most of them offered some pretty reasonable advice for lessening the impact.   Here are some of the most common suggestions:

• Talk to your friends about your feelings.  Check
• Lean on your spouse for support.  Check
• Maintain healthy eating and exercise habits.  Check    (well most of the time anyway)
• Resume hobbies that you might have let fall by the wayside.  Check  (so far so good)

And I swear on the box of Whitman chocolates in my kitchen:

• Share your experiences on a blog.

I am not kidding.  Which gives me so much peace of mind.  I guess I’m not crazy after all!

Well at least not in this particular regard.

So it seems as though I’m doing all the right stuff which is encouraging. It’s also probably good to get that we (me) get these little trial runs.  So we’re not (I’m not) completely blindsided when she’s actually gone to college.

And just think…you get to hear all about it. 

I’ll totally understand if you decide to run screaming.  But I guess if you’re still here after reading about my cat’s hairballs and some of the other more pitiful posts of late then you’re probably not going to be scared off by more of my sentimental, hormonally induced ramblings.

Anyway, I guess I’ll go fold that load of clothes that’s been taunting me all night.  And I think there’s still some chocolate left too.

All’s well that ends well.

Peace, Kelly