You're Welcome, Austin, for the Economy Boost

Did you know, mummies, that there is a whole world outside your four walls, outside the smallish perimeter of your children's shrieks, needs and desires?

Guess where I am?  Yes, Nordstrom!  On the very same day that a new Savvy department debuted!  

I really wasn't sure - or had at least forgotten - that there is a whole wide world out there.  I was a wreck before my trip.  I was going to come home early, because I was sure as soon as I left some great tragedy would befall my family.

Oddly this feeling subsided as soon as I sat down at my departure gate.

At the "Hula Hut" on Lake Austin.  Cucumber infused vodka, anyone?

I felt like I was running on rocket fuel without the weight of all my children's needs, thoughts and desires - so light and unencumbered did I feel.

Of course a heady feeling of euphoria is probably not a great combination when one is let into one's favorite store for the first time in seven months.

Damage was done

Austin was a lovely, funky, sunny beautiful city.  We stayed at a hotel with a copyright lawyers' meeting (my sister's party); a White Tantric Yoga convention; and runners for the Austin marathon.  It was hilariously obvious who was with which party.

Not in Tulsa anymore!

Gah that shopping will tire a girl (or old lady) out

Oh I was nervous to leave.  Oh PVT worked hard.  And I missed my awful children.  But it was so transforming, so liberating, so eye-opening to feel, for a couple of days, like a real person and not a human vending machine.

I think it's up to me to find a way to cultivate that crazy heady feeling every day.

And I think we had better make an annual sisters' trip.