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Friday, September 17, 2010

Where Have All the Weekends Gone?

Image via Flickr / Photo by MoodyMal

"Stay busy."  

That is the most common piece of advice I was given after Mr. Marmalade deployed.  "Keep yourself busy, don't sit around, time will fly."  You know what?  That is absolutely true.  But I didn't need to try very hard!  



If our lives develop in phases, I would say that I am living through the marriage phase right now, as it seems that all of our friends are getting married.  And oddly, it seems that everything is happening at the same time this year.  

Let's look at this past September:


The first weekend was BM Cuz's bridal shower, that I helped organize.  The second weekend was saved for a dress shopping extravaganza (more like dress fail, but I digress).  The third weekend, I headed up to Maine for a friend's wedding.  And the last weekend, I scheduled some more time for dress shopping.  Did you get that?  One month of my life, committed weddings (weekdays are a total wash for me since I work pretty long hours). 


While that was going on over the weekends, I made it a point to work on things for myself, things I enjoyed.  Like writing, for example.  And reading--I'd been trying to head to the library for what felt like months.  And friends?  Well, I made it a point to call at least one friend a night, so I wouldn't let myself become isolated.  Of course, none of this was easy with work. By the time I got home I was amazed at how tired I was, sometimes I was too tired to put together a complete sentence let alone cook up a meal.  

Image via Amazon.com / Book & Cover Art by Roger Hargreaves


Even now as time is winding down (and Mr. M is home safe and sound!) I struggle to write this, I can just feel my eyelids growing heavy.  If I could just convince someone to squeeze a couple more hours into the day...  


I'll miss this time in my life one day, so I'm not complaining.  My friends are getting married!  I'm getting married, too.  This is a time to celebrate!


And yet, being busy all the time began to wear on me.  Especially when I found myself too busy to talk to Mr. M.  I was so good at staying busy that we went long, long stretches of time without a chat (via phone or Skype). Our communication was confined to short emails and handwritten letters (does anyone else love snail mail as much as I do?).  And that hurt.  I desperately wanted to hear his voice.  I wanted to laugh with him and fill him in on my life.  I wanted to tell him about this busy time. I wanted to fill him in on our plans, and my friends' plans and everything else wedding related in my life.  And there was the rub--there came a point in this whirlwind of weddings, that I started to miss him more, no matter how busy I became.  He's my partner in crime, he's part of me.  I will never be busy enough to forget that.  


Ah well.  Looking back on it now with some perspective, I can say time flew by.  Our email communications did the trick, and I'm happy we had that much.  I'm thrilled to have been busy with so many wonderful things to do.  I was honored to be there for my friends as they planned their weddings, and I'm excited to plan ours.  




Long distance folks: what have you done to make your separation easier?  And, has anyone else felt like their life is just filled to the brim with weddings lately?






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