At Leisure

As I prepare to go back to work, I look back at my year plus of housewifery and really wonder why I hated it so much. I got to do whatever I wanted to do, whenever I wanted to. I think it was that lurking feeling that I should be doing something about this. The giant dust bunnies, the mountain of laundry, the sinkful of dirty dishes, the crusty bits on the refrigerator shelf, that pile of wrinkly things... And I did do something about it, but grudgingly, with a frown in my heart. Which doesn't make sense, because I love my home, when the power is on. As a nurse, you always have another task to do the very next second. The procrastinating part of one's character (a very large part, in my case!) has absolutely no scope for expression in a hospital. Everything there is right now. But here, I can always do the laundry tomorrow. And so it grows, along with my resentment of it. Maybe I would be better off as a that wandering hippie I always wanted to grow up to be in childhood. No comfy chairs to knit in, however, is a chilling thought for the middle aged!