Silence is golden

This morning, Mark left to take the girls up to Massachusetts to see my mom, stepfather and brother, who is visiting from California. They will be back tomorrow. I had to work so I couldn't go.

I arrived home a while ago to an eerily silent house. I plunked my keys down on the table listening to their odd metallic echo in the living room. Usually, I am greeted by running footsteps and squeals and cries of, "Pick me up! Give me a hug!"

I walked up the hallway noticing how every sound - from my own shoes on the hardwood floors, to the flick the light switch in the bathroom makes, to the click click click of the burner on the gas stove right before it fires into blue heat - is oddly amplified. Everything is clearer. And most of all, everything seems foreign. The usual swirl of activity that fills the final hours of my day is gone: No chatter, no occasional clink of utensils on plates, no laughter, no whining. And most of all, no mess. My house is as neat as it was when I picked it up almost 24 hours ago.

I paced around the kitchen - the extremely clean kitchen - waiting for my dinner of leftovers to heat up and wondering what to do in such a strange, quiet house. What would I do to fill my time tonight with no cleaning to do, no baths to give, no stories to read and no teeth to brush but my own?

And then it hit me.

IT'S PARTY TIME FOR MOMMA!

I'm going to break out a glass of wine, sit my ass on the couch and catch up on magazines. Or maybe I'll just surf the web all night. After I eat half a bag of chocolate and the rest of Peanut's birthday cake. I may even (gasp) take a bath! Alone! With no one banging on the door. And then I'll curl up in my bed and SLEEP ALL NIGHT LONG. By myself! No little people poking me in the arm in the middle of the night telling me they are scared. No small child crying out for water in the wee hours.

EIGHT STRAIGHT HOURS OF SLEEP.

::happydance! happydance! happydance!::

Now if you'll excuse me, I must log off. I've got big plans for tonight. Sleep tight!