I’m spending the night alone in a hotel room for the first time in quite a while, so I can be ready to attend a conference first thing in the morning. It is quiet. I have sole command over the remote control. (There’s still nothing on worth seeing…) No one is demanding any attention. There’s no laundry to be done, puppy to take out, or any other demands being made. It feels …..weird.

I spend so much time every day doing stuff- house maintenace stuff, kid maintenance stuff, life maintenance stuff- it seems odd not have any of these demands at all at the moment. And overwhelming, too.

How should I optimize this down time? Should I watch silly tv? Take a bath? Explore the hotel and go to the gym? Listen to my ipod? Read?

The answer may be all of the above. But I am amazed at how quiet the quiet is, and how much it makes me miss the usual evening turmoil at my house, no matter how much I might complain about it at the time. Truth is, I love my family, I love my house, I even love the nippy little puppy, and while the quiet is nice, home is the best place of all.