<p>I am feeling unappreciated/noticed @ home & it is getting worse- (plus this premenopause stuff is suck :p) - I am trying to shake H up a little I guess / just get away from the neighbors remodeling- it has been going on for 5 months ! !) & even though we can’t really afford it right now- I just booked the train to go to Portland for a couple days- I don’t even know if D is going to be available- I just need a break!</p>
<p>( I could have driven to save $, but I am looking forward to reading on the train- otherwise I can’t sit still long enough - booked the hotel through priceline- so it isn’t like I am staying at the now notorious Hotel Lucia- even though my PT’s BIL owns it- I still miss the Mallory )</p>
<p>Oh dear- if I feel this way in August- when it hasn’t rained in * weeks* what am I going to be like in January, when the sun hasn’t come out for months?</p>
<p>I often feel that way this time of year. August in FL = summer doldrums! By all means, runaway! Do it on whatever budget you can manage, just do it and enjoy every second of it!</p>
<p>Enjoy your get away. It’s healthy, imo. Not saying it’s good to run from our problems, but sometimes a little distance and time away gives us some relief, and perhaps some appreciation for what we are leaving behind on our little escape.</p>
<p>We are very fortunate to have a lake house a couple of hours away. My DH and I enjoy our time together there, but we also take turns going there by ourselves to decompress. He likes to putter around the house doing yard work and minor home repairs, while I enjoy the escape to read. No phone or internet. It’s been great for our marriage.</p>
<p>You will probably feel refreshed after your little trip and better equipped to handle the normal daily aggravations of life. And maybe your family will appreciate all the things you do for them a little more after they’ve had to live without you for a couple of days.</p>
<p>I must say, I am awfully envious of you at this particular moment. Envy is a rather unattractive quality…but it’s honestly how I feel. I’ll leave it at that.
I wish you the most restorative of trips. I hope you find it peaceful and the break just what you needed!</p>
<p>I couldn’t even go to the bathroom by myself- when the kids were little- too bad I didn’t take more time for myself then.</p>
<p>I think summer reminds me of when I was a kid- and had nothing but how to fill my time to worry about. ( although with my neighborhood friends on vacation- that was slow sometimes)</p>
<p>But now of course- we all know just how short summer is ( although you on the east coast may feel like you are done with summer.)</p>
<p>At the all city neighborhood block party last night- I was asked by 5 different people if I had any grandchildren.
Well yes, I do have a 28 year old ( but I had her when I was 24)- however I barely just found out she has a boyfriend & she made a point of telling me that neither one wants kids.</p>
<p>I also looked decades younger than I was for years- although recent health/life junk has caught up with me apparently. :p</p>
<p>Our neighborhood is also full of young couples with little kids- my daughters age.</p>
<p>One baby yesterday was named Juniper & I asked if she was named after the book character- the mom didn’t realize I was familiar with the Monica Furlong books & she kept mentioning other titles that were similar. Then I told her, that my daughter who was about her age, had read them- & I asked her if she was about 26? She said " no- she was 28", then I laughed and said that I wondered if she was 28- but I had learned to guess young- her H agreed.</p>
<p>I guess it is about when kids are 25, that you stop guessing they are older, & start guessing younger.</p>
<p>EKity4 - I bet lots of people feel exactly like you, just not brave enough to take a little break.<br>
What does hubby say about it? I’m assuming that you are going by yourself?
I am also having the premenopause crap! It is CRAZY, isn’t it?</p>
<p>You will LOVE your train ride! Be sure to pamper yourself & eat some nice meals–Amtrak has surprisingly good cuisine! Like they say on the airlines, you must take care yourself before assisting others. You will come home recharged & refreshed, so you can contribute to your household once more!</p>
<p>I haven’t even * told* H I am going. ( I will- probably tomorrow)
He has been busy at work & has been developing quite a martyr complex. Which I admit I do not have a lot of patience for.</p>
<p>He wouldn’t go anyway- cause it is Seafair weekend & he loves hydroplane racing more than football- He complains if I am taking a class or even doing errands in the evening- but he is too tired to talk- & I knew that this weekend he wouldn’t even notice if I was gone- so I might as well go! ;)</p>
<p>The train isn’t really that long- just about three hours- or so ( depending on freight traffic), & I usually bring my own snacks cause I am picky.
But I will sure go out to dinner in Portland- maybe I will even meet this boyfriend I have barely heard anything about.</p>
<p>Love going to Portland by train, cause I HATE the slog on I-5. They also have good public transportation, so I don’t need a car, I just have to make sure I take the right MAX line.
:o</p>
<p>Oh & no sales tax- Have to make my trip worth it :)</p>
<p>Wow, if a few weeks without rain upsets you, you really wouldn’t do well here in San Diego where some summers we can go seven MONTHS without any rain.</p>
<p>No worries, EK, the rain should be back this Friday, just in time for the (of course, outoor!) concert at the winery to which DH and I will be going!</p>
<p>Enjoy your time in Portland. Recharge your batteries and come back full of energy!</p>
<p>I meant
I don’t really like rain- so if I feel like crap when it is sunny & beautiful, what I am I gonna feel like when everyone is jumping off the Aurora Bridge?</p>
<p>Is this weekend Jackson Browne?
I forgot to get tickets
O O O
[STG</a> Presents > Hootenanny For A Healthy Gulf with Duff McKagan, Mike McCready & Friends > The Moore Theatre](<a href=“404”>404)
plus Mark Pickerel sez ( of the Screaming Trees and the Praying Hands) that he has tickets with no service charges at his shop in Belltown.</p>
<p>We went to the Hootenanny for Haiti at the Showbox with same people and I fell in love with Duff- I never listened to guns and roses, but he is so sweet and so hysterical.
Unfortunately I have tickets to Cindi Lauper at the zoo for the same night- don’t know what I am gonna do.</p>
<p>I’m envious as I pack for a week at a very, very “rustic” lodge with my family and my sister’s family. Nine strong personalities in a limited space with one bathroom.</p>
<p>Maybe I should check the train schedule from Boston. They might not even notice I’m missing.</p>
<p>As a husband and surviver of the menopause years; I would like to take a moment to say… “Whatever you would like dear”, followed quickly by “You Go Girl”…</p>
<p>EK4 - Are you taking Ann Tyler’s book “Ladder of Years” with you? It’s a book about a woman who just walks away from her family while they are on vacation feeling like none of them will even notice she is gone. I think of this book whenever I am in the doldrums - makes me realize that I am not alone with those feelings if there’s a character in a novel who feels the same way. I can’t even remember the ending - the reviews I just looked up seem to say she eventually goes back and I think that feels about right. I strongly agree that a few days away can accomplish alot - just to refresh yourself even if everything is still the same when you return.</p>
<p>For me, just a few days away from H and home can make me feel like I’ve been away for months and is totally different from taking a few days away together. Have a wonderful adventure!</p>
<p>I started reading the CC book Let the Great World Spin, but I am also reading Tinkers, which won the Pulitzer this year.</p>
<p>I have about 200 books on my ipod, so that should keep me busy- plus I told D I was coming, she wants to go underwear shopping ( but I had to tell her I wasn’t bringing the car)</p>
<p>I think I did read Ladder of years for book group;) Is that the one where she takes a walk on the beach & just keeps going?
Sounds appealing but I am only going to be gone for the weekend- I took a bigger trip a couple years ago, when I went to Santa Barbara by myself to see a couple concerts- ( Eddie Vedder & the Seattle Symphony- same venue, different nights- and Eddie practically made his entrance in my lap!)I hadn’t been to California since I went to Disneyland with my parents & I had never been on a plane by myself.
( which didn’t go so well, but Santa Barbara has the cutest airport)</p>
<p>I do tend to take off- I am drained by having to interact with people too much, but it does get lonely working by myself. A train is perfect, cause you are with people, but not * with them*. ( and the motion is so soothing, unlike the motion & noises on an airplane which can be a little alarming!)</p>
<p>Yes, it its the one where she takes a walk on the beach and keeps going. Sort of what I often imagine doing but probably better in the imagination than in reality.</p>
<p>So, you must be the classic definition of an introvert. Not the common understanding of that as someone who is shy but this definition:</p>
<p>Except- I was supposed to leave @ 945 this morning, but last night our beloved old dog took a turn for the worse & I couldn’t cancel the hotel but I bumped the train back to 530pm. H says she is doing a “little” better, but he made an appt for Sat in case she doesn’t improve. Not very relaxing but she turned 16 in June and that is the oldest labrador I know- It wouldn’t be right to try and keep her going forever even though she is so full of love. I would rather be with d when I tell her .
But life could be worse- I just saw in the news today that the son of a woman I got to know when we both had kids “with special needs” in a new school, and later when we were co-chairs of the PTA. I even went back to help her out when we moved to another high school.
Last summer after being taunted her son killed another young man and today he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. That truly would have been abouT the last thing I would have predicted for him because he just wasn’t an angry guy.
Really impulsive though:( Tragic for both young men.</p>
- booked the hotel through priceline- so it isn’t like I am staying at the now notorious Hotel Lucia- even though my PT’s BIL owns it- I still miss the Mallory 
)</p>
She said " no- she was 28", then I laughed and said that I wondered if she was 28- but I had learned to guess young- her H agreed.</p>
I would rather be with d when I tell her .