Perhaps the greatest thing about being single, childless and pet-free? You can, at 8:00 on a Friday night, say to yourself, “I must take a road trip to the beach and this must happen right now.”

And do it…

Another one of those Sunday nights when I find myself wondering where the hell my weekend went. Unfortunately there will probably be a lot of those over the next few months. All the same, I’m going to get away for a few days soon. Suggestions welcome. I’ll also be doing a conference presentation in DC in April and I’m pondering (not sure how seriously just yet) a trip to Seattle sometime this year. It’s been way too long.

Assorted thoughts (without links for a change) on a Sunday night:

• As I expected, the really weird thing to get used to is the calls I’m not getting from my dad anymore. I’ll be using an even smaller fraction of those minutes I so much resent paying for now.
• Realizing that I’ve lost so much weight that my suit now looks utterly ridiculous on me was pretty exciting. Realizing it on the morning of my dad’s funeral–when I needed to wear that suit–was less so.
• As of tonight, the house is in order, the laundry is done, and I actually have a full complement of groceries for the first time in almost a month. It’s nice.
• All the above allowed me to make curry tonight. That was pretty nice too.
• Back to work on Tuesday. That might even be nice.

It is much more difficult to stay sad when wiping your eyes and blowing your nose with Elmo tissues.

We said goodbye to my dad this afternoon. It was a very difficult thing (you really don’t know until you’ve done it) and I am pretty thoroughly wiped out after the service and the two weeks of significant hospital time that preceded it. I’ve spent exactly one full day at work since before the holiday break and I’m actually looking forward to Tuesday when I can start back.

There’s a long post in me about my dad but it’s not coming out tonight. I mainly want to thank my friends for your calls and messages and for letting me know you were thinking about me and checking up on me, and also to thank my family for being there unquestionably and without even needing or waiting to be asked.

More later. I’m not going to do much other than watch movies and try to eat reasonably healthy food for the next couple of days. I would have really enjoyed last night’s snow if it had come tonight instead.