It’s almost 11 p.m. and I sat down to write not realizing how late it was. I’m morphing back into such a night person in the years since my retirement! The main problem with that is – well, there are two. First, the world doesn’t run on my schedule – American life is a “day person.” And second, I may want to stay up but I don’t want to stay out. There’s a certain time in the evening when I just have to get into my robe – usually hits by 8 p.m. I guess I’m a day/night hybrid.
If I had an Aha! moment this year, it would come immediately to mind, right? I’m glad the question gives me the option of an insight or epiphany. I’m pretty sure I had some of both. In fact, I know I did. So I’ll talk about the one I remember which is the most recent.
I probably do twice as much as most people in a day. I’m high energy and high speed (but not nearly like I used to be). I’m saying this because it’s what I’ve been told over and over throughout my life. I have to take this on the word of other people, because to me I’m me. I have no idea what’s normal. I just know me. I’m getting more tired, however, and I knew I’d hit a new insight, or had an epiphany of some sort when my husband and I had this conversation a little while ago.
Me: Mark, I’ve been thinking about the trip we’re planning for next October. After the wedding in Maui, I’m thinking we should just go to Thailand instead of trying to also fit in Viet Nam and Cambodia. I’m just feeling like I don’t want to zoom around.
Mark: We’ve been spending too much money lately, so maybe we should skip Thailand and just go to Maui.
Me: That sounds fine.
That sounds fine? No argument? You have no idea how unprecedented this is. When we travel, which we both love to do, we are gone about three weeks at a time because we want to see as much as we can, knowing we won’t return. We keep up a pretty fast pace – I mean, it works for us and we do rest in the afternoons and turn in early. Or one of us does. And I can’t stand not traveling. We didn’t have any big trips this year – I had to cancel a trip to London thanks to Mr. Economy. About drove me crazy. I was in London last October and still had things I wanted to see and intended to this time around.
Next year we’re planning to drive Route 66 as far as Oklahoma and veer off to Florida for a soccer tournament a granddaughter is playing in. Then we’re going to a wedding in Maui and my husband suggested since we were already part way that we should continue to Bangkok to visit friends. Wow! Yes, I jumped on that. Can that much have changed in a few months?
Besides being fine with skipping Thailand, I want to go back to Costa Rica, Italy and France. China would be good too. I want to go places I’ve been. I’d even like to go on another cruise. This is so unlike me – there’s a whole world out there and I’ve only seen a fraction!
It’s also possible that with the current situation of my parents, I’m just out of zip. It’s so draining mentally. We’re at a crossroads, and they can’t live independently but they refuse to go anywhere or have anyone in their home so we’re at a standstill. Something has to give and probably that drains my zip so much that I’m zapped. Maybe when that whole situation is resolved, I’ll feel like moving ahead again.
But for now, my insight of the year is I’m slowing down and ready to act accordingly. I’m tired. And running out of money too.
Tags: #best09, aha moment, economy, epiphany, Gwen Bell Best of Blog, slow down, trips
My Emma is a night owl, and since she has been homeschooled this year, I allow her to be. It might be unconventional, but she is so much happier.
I hear you on being tired. I am a weird early morning/late night person but I realized the other night (an a-ha while gift wrapping at Barnes and Noble for the Empty Space and chatting it up with yet another complete stranger about writing) I write best when it is quiet. For me, that means when children are tucked into their beds, not pulling on my shoulder or hanging on my arm.
I love them dearly AND… you know how that works, I know you do.
i have always been a night owl – a frustrated night owl because i have to get up and move around the day like that’s “normal”. i love the quiet of night – it is, for me, a time when anything is possible and nothing seems too crazy to consider. as for your parents, been there many times with in-laws, my dad, and 3 childless great-aunts. it is exhausting. it is challenging. it is thankless, invisible w-o-r-k. it requires the most essential kind of love – the kind that knows that the right thing is most often the hardest thing. i’ve had in-home sitters (an expensive disaster) (if you take this route, be sure to go through an agency who will make it right when and if they steal, run up $800 worth of phone charges, and such as that). assisted living facilities (great/horrible experiences). cleared space in my home (it never came to that on an extended basis, just a few weeks or months as they recuperated from something.) don’t lose yourself in it (admittedly easier to say than do) and feel free to use my email to vent if and when needed. i’ll close this unusually long comment by saying “nap at will.”