My little family of four was supposed to travel to a funeral in Indiana this weekend. Unfortunately, on Wednesday I started to feel “not quite right.” I stayed nauseated, weak, head-achy, and exhausted for the next two days. Without having eaten anything more than broth and crackers for as long as I could remember two days, I knew traveling would not be pleasant. So I made the decision to stay home.
My husband took the kids Saturday morning for a same-day, whirlwind trip. Holy cow. I could never have done that.
And that left me alone. In my house. For 12 hours. With nothing that had to be done. No one who needed to be fed. No questions to answer. No responsibilities other than keeping myself hydrated.
I haven’t spent 12 hours alone in this house ever. Though I felt horribly guilty for missing the funeral (Hi, Catholic guilt), and still felt crummy enough to not eat anything more than a bowl of cereal, I loved being able to just lay around. I watched TV. Played Words with Friends. Surfed on my laptop. Watched more TV. And because I was still sick, I didn’t have that constant self-nag to be productive.
It. Was. Awesome.
I’m feeling much better today. Had a cheeseburger and some chocolate and all is right with the world.
(In writing this post, I remembered one of my original ideas for this place involved posts about grammar issues that bug me, or rules I can never remember, or things that drive me nuts when others misuse – like eager and anxious. Lie and lay. Had to look that up. Always have to look that one up. Nauseous and nauseated? People mix those up all the time. Maybe this week I’ll get my act together and provide a few grammar lessons. Any grammar pet peeves you’d like me to tackle?)
Incorrect use of the word unique- drives me crazy!
How could I forget? I’ll have to school myself to make sure I get that one right for you.
There’s a difference between nauseous and nauseated? Uh oh. My grammar must make your eyes bleed.
12 hours of being home alone sounds amazing!
I make special exceptions for people I REALLY like. So I think you’re in the clear.
Where to begin? I vs. me. And the misuse of apostrophes in surnames. I can’t believe how many holiday cards had them!
The I and me thing bugs me too. And I feel like an ass when I point it out to people, so most of the time I don’t. (Unless they have asked me to edit.)
I go with the generic “The Day Family” and leave the “S” off altogether.
And since one of my kid’s names ends in an “s” you’d think I would have figured out the possessive of that – but most places I look say either is accepted. I try to find a way to word it so the possessive isn’t necessary. Or just call him Nick instead of Nicholas.
The use of “anxious,” which indicates anxiety to me, for “eager” has always bothered me. But apparently, it’s been around since the 1700s. I wonder if there was a backlash then.
From dictionary.com:
The earliest sense of anxious (in the 17th century) was “troubled” or “worried”: We are still anxious for the safety of our dear sons in battle. Its meaning “earnestly desirous, eager” arose in the mid-18th century: We are anxious to see our new grandson. Some insist that anxious must always convey a sense of distress or worry and object to its use in the sense of “eager,” but such use is fully standard.