I love everyone in my family but I am very much an introvert who used to take advantage of school days to recharge in solitude. Solitude which I’ve not had since March. As an extreme introvert, the small moments I’ve carved out here and there in my bedroom at the end of the day are just not enough. I am feeling very drained.
You know what I think I need more than anything right now?
Quiet solitude.
I need some time, maybe a long weekend, where I’m in a comfy space with just my laptop, my bullet journaling supplies, and a few books. I need all social media and news sites blocked on my laptop and my phone, and I only need access to my streaming services and TikTok so I can choose my entertainment at MY discretion, and not needing to find a consensus amongst the members of my family with wildly differing tastes.
I need a small fridge stocked with my favorite seltzer water and one nightly local lager that will only disappear as I drink them. No going to get something and finding it’s all gone. I need some Ruffles and french onion dip and some Half-Baked Ben&Jerry’s. That combined with some meal delivery services should suffice.
I need to be able to do whatever I want without people hollering for me across the house, or needing me to drive them places. I need to be able to eat and drink what I choose without considering the tastes of everyone else in the house. My schedule needs to be mine ALONE.
OH. And I need my coffee maker and my coffee supplies. And I need to drink the entire pot myself in the morning without coming back for a second cup only to find the whole pot is already gone.
I need no phones to ring, no texts to come in, and no emails to check. No laundry to do or dishes to wash or meals to cook or groceries to buy.
BUT – I need all of those things being tended to while I’m in solitude. None of my heavenly retreat is worth it if I have to exit to piles of things that didn’t get done in my absence.
I need a soft (but not too soft) bed that I sleep in alone…where no one wakes me up because I’m snoring, where no one comes to get me in the middle of the night because they’re not feeling well, where no dogs need to be let out.
I will only leave my retreat once a day, and that’s for a mid-day trip through the McDonald’s drive-thru for a large Diet Coke. Their fountain drinks are the best, you know.
I know the logistics of this are pretty much impossible, but it sure is nice to dream.
I could not agree more! I have been searching for beach or mountain cabins/condos/cottages where I can go for a long weekend by myself and just write and enjoy the quiet, even though I know I am too scared to leave my house in a pandemic. I also have been shopping for a she-shed that I will not buy. Why do I do this to myself? I guess it’s good to dream. 🙂
Sounds good to me too! I’ve had only very brief windows of solitude. I’m looking forward to my kids going back to school nearly full-time next week! Andy will still be here, but it will be easier to find quiet. I’m hoping to be able to focus on work for longer periods than I have been able to without interruptions from my Wesley who desperately needs to tell me something he’s thought of about Star Wars or the Mandalorian or Pokemon!
Rent a little cabin on Monte Sano for the weekend and DO IT!!
No need for this to only be a dream. Express it to the person who can make it happen and it will. You can get your expressed wishes met and he can sleep uninterrupted.
: )
I have friends and we joke….if there were 15 of us paying rent on an empty apartment we could each get two days there a month. How expensive would that be? We would slowly fill it with furniture and all the the “things” we “think” we need—which maybe really isn’t much.
Because you know what we each really want?
To be alone.
For two days.
Before the pandemic I traveled for work a few times a month. I would stay in hotels eating what I wanted, watching what I wanted and not having to do anything for anyone. Now I’m home 24/7 with my husband and 19 year old college student. I work from home so I can close my door when I need to but they still come knock on my door to ask things. We’ve talked about getting away somewhere for a few days but then I would have to plan it all and we’d be in a hotel room together—no alone time there. It would be more stressful than relaxing for me. Sometimes when I go grocery shopping I take the really long way home or sit in a parking lot for a bit reading and enjoying my alone time. (((HUGS)))
That’s a really good idea!
I bought some of the hibiscus seltzer on your recommendation and it’s lovely! I add it to my kid’s prune juice in the mornings and he told me it smelled like candy, so there you go. I think you may also like mango Bubbly. That’s my recent go-to, and it has a “full” flavor that I think you might enjoy, given your hibiscus love.