Piece of Quiet

It was a quiet weekend here at Chez Us.

I went in for some minor surgery on Friday - the outpatient kind, where they bring you in, have their way with you, and then send you home in a drug-induced haze so you can sleep it off. And three cheers for drug-induced hazes, I say. "Better living through chemistry" - that is my motto.

Well, it's one of them.

There's also "Never ask what you really don't want to know." Sometimes I fall back on "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Occasionally I am more in an "It's not my fault you're stupid" kind of mood, or "Once you know what the magician knows, it isn't magic anymore." Really, there are just mottoes for every occasion around here. I am sure that someday my children will just roll their eyes whenever I open my mouth, even if it is just to sneeze. Because you never know when some pearl of wisdom will come slipping out, bounce across the floor and get caught in the gears of everyday life, making them smoke and judder to a halt until the sad clown appears downstage right and says something completely unrelated that we are all supposed to nod sagely at - much like the original motto, in fact, which is how life completes one of its many circles.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Drug-induced hazes. Gotta love 'em.

We felt it would probably be best if the girls spent the weekend up with their grandparents rather than bouncing around me, so off they went.

It was kind of eerie, actually.

Not for the girls - no, despite some initial separation anxiety they had a wonderful time once they got there. Playing Uno, going to see Ice Age 3, and eating Cheezy Poofs for two and a half straight days will do that. That sounds pretty good to me, actually. Somewhere I am sure there is a bag of Cheezy Poofs as big as my car, just waiting for me to dive in and eat my way clear to the other side. This might just be a case of the post-drug-induced-haze munchies, though. You can't tell what's real until you start chewing.

I'll add that last bit to my stock of mottoes.

No, mostly it was just quiet here.

On the one hand, this is what I needed - a couple of days to sit around and not do anything more strenuous than eat General Tso Chicken (extra spicy - as in "No, no, no, not the 'midwestern spicy' that this description normally covers. Extra! Spicy! If the aluminum tray is not beginning to melt, please add more peppers") and watch movies with Kim. And we did just that. I can highly recommend The Hangover, though it is not something you should take your children to until they are thirty.

On the other hand, though, it is surprising how silent the house seems without the girls running around. There are times when I wish for this quiet, but whenever I get it I am always sort of bummed about it.

I am in for some sad, sad days when they go off to college.