Free To Do Me!!! The Empty Nest.

It has been a week since I returned home to an empty house (well, except for Brownie and Bailey—the cat and the dog) and I have only cried once, that was yesterday and I had to call my bestie, Melissa, over to just sit with me.  To be honest that is pretty good for me because, Baybeee, I am a crier when it concerns my children. 

The triple threat is my nickname for them.  Dougie hates that name, he also hates that I still call him Dougie, but whatever.  I don’t think the other two mind the name triple threat.  Douglas, David and Danielle (in that order—LOL) are in their first year of college. Dougie and Daniee are at Middle Tennessee State University and David is at St. John's University. Their Mommy (YES, I am still Mommy) is in her first year of “oneness” since she was 25.  Don’t be concerned with my age, just know that it has been a long time since I have lived alone.

Not only am I living alone, but also I am single.  Yeah, that’s another blog for another day…I “gots” plenty to say about my dating pool.  You know, I thought I would be elated to be an empty nester.  I can  come home and do what I want to do.  I can cook or not cook.  Walk around in my bra and panties, well, I kind of did that anyway, we were a “liddo” free around here since it was only us since they were 3 years old (except for that other short lived marriage).  I can play my music in the house and sing like I want to sing.  I can watch what I want to watch on the TV in the family room. I can wash my clothes in the washing machine when I want to.  I can stop to grab a quick bite to eat and spend $4.89 on a kid's chicken nugget meal, rather than $32.97 on two double baconators, upsized (Daniee eats like a bird, so that would be for Douglas and David).  I can go to Longhorn, which by the way I love, and spend $25.57 for dinner not $212.87 (not including the tip and we tip appropriately) because we have to have two or three appetizers and the two largest steaks on the menu!! Again, that would be the guys. I get to clean up only my mess and not the messes of others.  I only have to fill my tank up and not their tank up.  I can take a shower or a poop and not have someone come in the bathroom and ask a freaking question.  I can come home any hour of the night I please, well, except for having to walk Bailey.  I can have a friend of the opposite sex over, yeah, that has not happen yet, but if I want to, at least I can. I just CAN!

I don’t have to go to another sporting event immediately after work or at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday.  I don’t have to pay fees for soccer, baseball, football, basketball, track or gymnastics (yes, they have participated in it all).  I don't have to drive or fly to Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Vegas or anywhere else there is an AAU tournament. I don't have to work the concession stand. I don't have to be nice to someone's crazy Momma that thinks her son or daughter should be starting rather than my son or daughter and tells me so.  I don’t have to hear about or pay for the latest basketball shoes necessary for life to continue.  I don’t have to attend another honors program, band recital, end of the year banquet or any event at their high school, which is 40 miles from our home.  I don’t have to stay up to make sure everyone makes curfew.  I don’t have to hear anyone scream, “Get out of my room!”  I don’t have to be a personal ATM, well, that’s not true, but it feels different because they aren’t asking EVERYDAY.  I just DON’T!

I am free to be me!  Free to do me, whatever that is!  I’m just FREE!!

AND THIS IS SOME STRAIGHT BULLCRAP AND FOR THE BIRDS!!! I AM TOTALLY ABOUT THAT LIFE!!! I MISS MY CHILDREN!!!