Free time

I like to travel.  But I LOVE to come home.

Back in my wild single day, I did a fair amount of traveling.  For work and fun.  I averaged a trip a month and really enjoyed it.  Seeing new places, meeting new people, blah, blah, blah, having a $50 per day meal allowance and a rental car and mapquested quilt shop locations.

Then I met Hubby (who wasn't Hubby then, he was just "friend I was considering marriage with", I'd been waiting 12 years to call someone Boyfriend but he said he wasn't a boy and Manfriend just sounded creepy), and suddenly there wasn't anywhere that was as nice as being next to him.  And now I've got three more reasons to like being home a whole lot better.

Some of you may find this hard to believe, but I'm an introvert.  Indeed, it is true.  I even have official verification:  The Myers-Briggs personality profile has me falling off the charts on the introverted end of the scale.  (For you MB fans out there, I'm INTJ to a T, and if you'd like to read about me and my ways, click HERE )  It is only by sheer will and determination and a calling that I speak in public for a living (and 4-H and FFA and my parents).  Did you know there are people out there who are actually energized by being around other people?  There are times I wish I was one of them.  But I'm not.  It exhausts me.  I am energized by quiet time and space, snuggling my babies, being snuggled in return.  

I tell you that to tell you this...

I spent 6 days last week in our nation's capitol.  And while I will have plenty of observations on my work there, I feel the need to first set the stage with this one.  One evening, we had "free time" from 4pm or so.  I was traveling with 25 other people so there were groups gathering to see this or eat there or meet so-and-so.  Invitations were extended for me to join some of them.  I politely declined them all.

What would be the perfect evening for this farm-wife-mama-turned-real-food-lunatic??  (I'll let you think on that for a minute.)

I went back to my hotel room.
Took a long, hot shower (to cleanse myself of the Metro and because I simply adore long, hot showers),
Put on my jammies,
Snuggled into the mountain of pillows on my bed,
And ordered room service for the first time ever.

I called Hubby and we talked like we did when we was my Manfriend,
watched cooking shows and M*A*S*H,
crochet mittens for my girls without their "help",
and went to sleep early.

And it was the most glorious "free time" I've ever had.