house husband no more

This past week Josh was away visiting his family in Florida. This meant that I was all by my lonesome and not very happy about it. It is amazing how quickly you forget how to sleep alone in a quiet house. Josh traveled for work during the last 4 years and just stopped consulting in May, so one would assume that I am accustomed to living alone. This assumption would apparently be false, as was evidenced by my lying awake at night listening for the sounds of creaking intruder footsteps.

It wasn't all loneliness and fear, though. I did try to live up my week as a single partying female and watched lots of scary movies, since Josh refuses, and met up with one of my best friends twice for girls' outings. We ate Mexican food, saw Wedding Crashers at the movies and had Cold Stone Creamery on Friday night- a perfect date, don't you think?

I was overjoyed to pick him up at the airport on Saturday morning, and continuing with my pledge to enjoy my time off instead of worry about the house, we had another lovely and relaxing weekend.

The pups and I had planned out an afternoon with Josh at Cape Ann, so we drove to Gloucester and Rockport, Massachusetts after picking him up. In a stroke of luck, Gloucester was having a Waterfront Festival, and we stopped to munch on festival foods and stroll around the booths. After a couple of hours, we ventured on to Rockport and visited all the adorable boutiques that make up this little seaside town.

Rockport is what I have always imagined the perfect New England town should be. Quaint, charming, sharp salty air, markers for lobster traps dotting the cold blue water and fisherman's boats moored to the docks. Since I visited for the first time during my freshman year of college, I have been drawn to its narrow streets and unique stores. I am never disappointed and this trip was no different. We sat on a bench munching on fried clam strips while watching tourists wander by and enjoyed the blue skies and cool breeze. A day like Saturday reminds me of why we moved back to Boston.

We did eventually (sadly) have to leave, though, and spent the rest of Saturday relaxing at home and playing with the dogs. Sunday wasn't nearly as fun, and we did typical food shopping and house cleaning for the rest of the week. I also finally sewed a window seat for our living room, since we bought fabric and the foam cushion a while ago, and Josh tried his hand at grooming the dogs. We picked up a clipper at Costco and he did quite a good job (I'll post pictures a little later)!

It was nice not to worry about painting or gardening and just enjoy the weekend. It also helped that my inlaws volunteered to help us paint and tile the basement!

On an exciting note, tomorrow I lose my "house husband." As I've mentioned in the past, Josh quit his job in May and has been relaxing and preparing for his reentry as a student. During these last 3 months he traveled to Costa Rica and read up for school, but he was also available as my laundry, dog care, and house cleaning guy. Sadly, tomorrow he begins his pre-classes and won't be as available to chauffeur me to and from work or do chores at my request. Sniff sniff.

I wish him loads of luck tomorrow as he enters this new phase of life, and I'll try not to be too sad that he isn't at my beck and call. Good luck! I know you'll be terrific!


** Any suggestions for new student gifts that I can give the former house husband?