18 days.

I could/ would/ should have titled this first entry "On the Road Again." But I'm not on the road. He is. We are here. Home. Waiting 18 days for daddy to come home. Just another Yoko waiting it out while daddy is off living the dream that will not die no matter how many times I stick a fork in it.

Just accept it, ladies, and get on with it. There will always be another tour.

Josh was leaving at 6am. We had to wake the kids to say good-bye. We traipsed outside to wave daddy and the van away and I went back to bed. The end.

Of course, it is Sunday so we go to church. I was totally ready (meaning on-time) and had wrangled a church date- my super- fun friend Lisa (everyone has a friend named Lisa). Sadly, as I pulled up in her driveway her garage door magically lifted and she squints out wearing an old t-shirt and black shiny soccer shorts that I think she had worn the day before on our 25-mile-last-hours-of-freedom-before-he-saddles-me-with-the-kids-for-18-days bike ride.

She looked startled. She squeeks: Wait didn't you get my text?!

Me: No. You aren't going. I have to go to church alone.

She: I no feel good. Woman things. (She speaks it in code cause my kids are in the car... is it wrong that my 10 year old boy still doesn't know what a period is? No! Let him live.)

I squealed away in a blaze of glory. I hate going to church alone. Wah wah wah. I know all you singly singles out there are all whatever but whatever back. I do like going to the movies alone, and eating alone with anything to read, but I like a church friend. Josh is always leading worship somewhere so he counts not, but it's nice when he can sit with me for the message (that's sermon for all you non-church girls out there).

Well, I go it alone, with my two gorgeous and precious kids who for real sit on top of me the whole service and giggle so I'm liking being there with just them.

I skittered out as fast as a cat afterward though. Who wants to answer a bunch of questions about where your husband is and when is he gonna be home and how are the kids and all that. Not me, not the first day. I mean, I'm fine. It's not a tsunami. It's just a little bit of lonely. Which is nice sometimes. I can stop the teardrops.

So the kids are watching a movie and I'm taking them out for a dusky bike ride in about 5 minutes and they will get to sleep with mama for 17 nights until daddy comes home.

What I like most is that this tour, the Smoking Popes opening for Alkaline Trio, is that it is happening during the summer. So I can bop and swim and ride and zoo and laze about without worrying about teaching all the time. (Did I mention I homeschool?) We can hang loose like yesterday's underwear. So we like the summer tour.

Tomorrow: For sure a spin, steam and swim at Lifetime. Doing this almost daily will keep me level for the ride.

Are you dying to know what the One Fun Thing is for tomorrow? It's a swim meet. Em's kids are on swim team so we will meet at the meet and then maybe go eat meat. My kids will cheer for her kids and that's good fun. This is a good opportunity for me to mention that the OFT does NOT have to cost anything. As long as your kids THINK its fun, then you're gold. Also, I should insert that fyi Emily is an Ironman. She will be ever-present on this blog and she will like that a lot.

With Josh gone, I can stay out a little later without worrying about making or meeting up for dinner. But this in itself is a dangerous thing. He's gone. It's too hurty to miss him all the time, so I just stop that and do what I do. Then when he comes home I'm still doing that and I have to start over trying to fit him in where he wasn't before. It's not like he's off at war or anything. He's playing music. So okay bye. Hurts too much to miss him so I kind of try to just forget.

That I'm just another yoko.