Back to reality

I'm at my new place in London, hearing the flatmates and their boyfriends ready themselves for auditions today.  They're practicing while drying their hair, applying makeup and trying not to contort their faces while humming and buzzing and whatnot.  And I'm still warming up from my trip to the airport this morning to drop off the husby.  

It's been two weeks of fun and festivity with him here.  Christmas Eve at Westminster Abbey, New Year in Germany with my family, day trips to Cambridge with my old friends, and a few lazy afternoons on the sofa watching entire seasons of Friends back to back.  Almost like life, except in  smaller beds and shared bathrooms.  But now we've got to go back to the grind.  I'm back at rehearsal later this week, getting acquainted with my new neighborhood, and trying to get through the heel of the sock I'm knitting.  There's a lovely park just across the street so I'm resolved to go running as much as I can (keep the crazy away at all costs) and to enjoy the company of other people as much as I can allow myself to.  All that hermitage and whatnot.  So tempting.  

We've promised to be good, count our WW points, socialize with others, and make progress while we're apart, but it just gets harder.  The better the gig, the easier the trip, the nicer the accommodation, the better the pay, the harder it is for us to say goodbye at the airport.  We promise to be sweet and positive and I do my sudoku on the Tube (damn you sudoku!) and curse at it when I've blocked myself into a corner and we eat our little breakfast in the airport and talk about how wonderful Costa coffee is and how much we miss the dog.  But then he's got to go through security and we're both trying to breathe deeply and not get out of hand.  Because I want to leap through security and get on the plane with him and see my house and my dog again and spend a night in my bed (omigosh I miss my bed soooo much) and do laundry in my machines.

But I've been instructed not to dwell on those things.  I'm going to put on my running clothes and sit on the sofa so the minute the sun comes out I'm ready to leap onto the path.  Keep away the crazy.  Keep away the crazy.

Gratitude in the new year:

1.  the kindness of strangers who clear out a room in their house for me to stay

2.  new family members in foreign countries

3.  electric tea kettles

4.  hot water bottles

5.  boo