As has been the constant subject of my blog posts last week, my wife and son are away for two weeks at my wife’s family’s annual summer vacation spot. I have opted to stay home to both look after our house and our cats, the eldest of which needs medication twice a day. I can say with all confidence as I begin the second of these two weeks…
…that two weeks is far too much for me.
I like my solitude, in its proper dosage. I like having precious “Me Time” when I can get it, and I usually have it during the school year while my son’s at school and my wife’s at work. During the summer, I don’t get a lot of that “Me Time” and the prospect of two solid weeks of it seemed promising! But it turns out this has not been the proper dosage of solitude. This is an overdose.
The best way I can describe this is comparing it to how I feel about Oreos. Bear with me here.
I love Oreo cookies. I fucking love them. The normal ones are fine, but Double-Stuf Oreos are perfection. Chef’s kiss, no notes, the perfect grocery store cookie. I could (and sometimes have) eaten a whole package in one sitting. I don’t keep them in the house all the time but when I treat myself I savor each one. Double-Stuf Oreos are heavenly.
Did you know they make Mega-Stuf Oreos? I didn’t until I saw them, and my curiosity was piqued. Double-Stuf was so good, surely Mega-Stuf would be amazing because it’s even more of that thing I love so much! When I tried them for the first time I was expecting bliss, but I got overwhelmed. For me, Mega-Stuf is too much of that… stuf. What was the perfect amount became an excessive amount, and that excess ruined my enjoyment. Plus, because the cookies are now bigger, you get less of them in a package.
That’s what two weeks of solitude has felt like; a promise of double the amount of something I enjoy indulging in, but in reality it’s too much.