Dust in the bathtub
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 10:08PM Home yesterday after seven weeks on the road. The lettuce has bolted in the garden and there's dust in the bathtub. Who has dust in their bathtub? The bathroom door was closed, for heaven's sake.
Everything looks strange when you've been away for seven weeks. And it smells funny too. You think "someone should do something about it." You wander from room to room looking at stuff and thinking: "Who wanted all these things?" Everything looks a little more battered than you think it did before you left. Some stuff this suits and other stuff it doesn't.
Your head is prone to random sleepiness regardless of what time it is in any of the places you've been recently and you realise that it isn't jet lag, it is the effort of reentering your old life that's making you tired.
Criptic notes left to remind you of important issues are meaningless. "Tre. Strabane!!". Yes thank you, but three what? Tree? Trevor? In Strabane? And those excamation marks aren't helpful, they just make you jumpy.
Even the cat is wary. You are a stranger in your own home.
Reader Comments (1)
Just killing time at work by perusing your site! I love this piece - really perceptive and nicely written, especially this line: "it is the effort of reentering your old life that's making you tired".
Anyway looking forward to meeting on Sept 10 - hopefully the word is good...!