There's a new sheriff in town

Sean is gone and weekends are not for polls anymore.

Weekends in the fall are for sleeping in, lounging in your jammies, eating a big, hot breakfast, getting some grubby clothes on and heading to the yard to play some kind of game, do some kind of yard work or go to some kind of garage sale. How great does that day smell? No matter what the activity, the point is being outside and feeling the waning heat of the sun underneath the coolness of the air. Gathering up every last bit of the heat before we collide with the bitter winter air.

Why is it that it is way too easy to get up on the weekends yet I need three alarm clocks, a child jumping on me and a fire hose to get me out of bed on Tuesday? How come you can't go to bed too late or get up too early on vacation? What is it about being in a different place, in a different bed, on a different street that makes things so much more pleasing to our senses? What do those things fill in us that going to work, making money and living in our neighborhoods don't? There is just something about escaping...

Vacation life would be so perfect if it could last forever. Believe me, I've tried. After Seans dad passed away, we left. We honestly just started driving and ended up in Canada and I would have stayed forever. But in order to maintain vacation life, we couldn't stay long enough to let anything feel old. That's the thing, as soon as things feel done, vacation feels less fun. When there aren't really any new restaurants left to try and you recognize the lifeguards and you can find your way around town, it begins to feel like home. And isn't home what we are trying to avoid? So we left Canada, went here and there, tried to see as many baseball games as we could, we spent time with the greatest grandma to ever have been a grandma, and we worked through some sadness. I remember so clearly the night Sean held my hands and said, "Annie, we need to go home tomorrow."

And I am so glad he did. That is when I began to quit running from life, relationships, reality. I began to grow roots and grow up. And now I am ready for Sean to come home.