Me and My Ladies

I keep thinking back to the movie Die Hard, when the newscasters were explaining the condition where kidnappers begin to identify with their hostage takers, and one of the newscasters calls it the Helsinki syndrome, and the other butts in and says, 'That's Helsinki, Sweden.' But Helsinki is actually in Finland, and the condition is called the Stockholm Syndrome. Why am I thinking about this? Because when I'm at home, and I'm running from place to place, working, picking up kids, doing homework, making dinner, taking kids to baseball, taking kids to dance, coaching softball; I always think about how I don't ever get to do things for myself. And how I just need some time away. And wonder what it would be like to take a crap without kids repeatedly knocking on the door. Well, here's my chance. I'm in Seattle all week for work, so I get to do pretty much whatever it is that I want. Don't get me wrong, it's been nice. I've watched some TV shows that I don't ever get to watch, gotten to stay up until the end of playoff basketball games, worked out as long as I wanted. Work is my only obligation right now. But what do I spend most of my time doing? Thinking about how much I miss home. How much I miss my family. How quiet it is here. How I'm not really all that needed here. How I have to sleep in my bed by myself. It's really all that I think about. I'm still going to enjoy my time here, but I'm counting down the hours until I can become captive again.

(And I realize that the whole time Racheal is reading this she's thinking, 'You bastard. You leave me here with 5 kids by myself and then write about how you're struggling to deal with it? I'll get you back for this! Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but one day, you'll pay for leaving me here with these hooligans!--Okay, maybe I exaggerated. She wouldn't use the word hooligan.) Love you, baby!!