the ocean

Sometimes my friends with kids assume that Ian and I live very glamorous and exciting lives because we do not have children. They'll mention a hot new restaurant I've never heard of and say "I'm sure you've been there." Or they'll suggest it must be strange to us that they are in bed by 10 PM, when as everyone knows 10 PM is when Murder, She Wrote comes on to the Hallmark channel, Aubrey takes her last bathroom trip of the day, and Ian and I slip into comas. Perhaps this misapprehension stems from some sense on my friends' part that they got out a lot more before they had kids? If so, they need to remember that they were also a lot younger before they had kids, and people in their forties don't need help from little ones to feel exhausted and stressed. 

So this weekend my glamor and excitement have so far consisted of a trip to the grocery store, a trip to Target to pick up things I forgot to get at the grocery store, a trip to the gym, some light catching up on work, and an hour on the phone with my mother. Oh, and television. I do sometimes watch television. In this case, a Hallmark movie that I did not actually want to watch and barely registered. I'd like to say I'm finally reading Ulysses or something, but more and more I'm just accepting the fact that that is something I will do fifty pages at a time during plane trips for the next three years or so. 

We do have plans with friends tonight, and are carving pumpkins with my sister and her family tomorrow. So I guess that's something. But I think the days of closing down bars and heading to the Lakeview IHOP to eat a fourth meal and potentially get an intestinal parasite are behind all of us. And that's okay. There is a lot of furniture to be picked out and Netflix to be watched.