Stolen time

On Friday Angela came over to watch the girls, and I worked from home in the morning, and then I ran errands for a couple of hours in the afternoon. It was eerie, being out and about on a weekday afternoon, no kids, no worries about work (I'd told everyone weeks ago I was taking the afternoon off to get ready to leave for my brother's wedding). I largely ignored by emails, and I just did what I wanted. I ran to Panera and brought a sick friend some soup, and then delivered it to her (and ate an awesome panini myself. PLUS a cookie, thankyouverymuch). I went to the hardware store and had a key made for Angela (finally). I dropped off my way-overdue drycleaning. I went to Target and went shopping. With NO DEADLINE. People, it was CRAZY. I could TAKE MY TIME. I made an unexpected stop at Best Buy to grab some ink for our printer (it's been out for months).

I almost felt guilty taking so much time to do this by myself. It felt good, though, to have some time to be the master of my own agenda, and not worry about anything because everything was taken care of. Bryan was teaching, the girls were being well cared for (and actually were napping half the time anyway), and my colleagues were handling things at the office. There were no fires to put out. So satisfying. I must do this more often.

Like now. I'm at the hotel in New York (next door to the venue at which my baby brother is getting married this evening - wow, I'm old). Bryan took Eden to the park to burn some energy, and Leah is napping. I'm just here. I don't have work to do (well, technically, I probably have work I *could* do, but nothing is too pressing right now and it can wait until tomorrow). Nobody needs me right now. So... I read blogs. I blog. I Facebook. And now, as soon as I sign off, I work on the sweet blanket I'm making for little Lafonda Besancon.

I love my family, and I really love being needed, but sometimes it is nice to have nothing pulling on me for an hour. :)