Saturday, August 11, 2007

Home Again, Alone

After a week of almost-constant company, it feels good to be alone again. I woke up about 5:30 a.m., tiptoed into my clothes, snuck out the Inn door, and was off to Port Townsend to catch the ferry by 6. There'd been a tide cancellation of the earliest ferry, so I had a little extra time to eat breakfast in Chimacum at a small cafe where the biscuits and gravy and sausage were superb (my favorite on-the-road breakfast).

The 8:15 a.m. ferry was right on time and we sailed for Keystone on the dot, arriving half an hour later and by 9:15 I was home, mollifying the cats, checking the mail, scanning the newspapers, watering the plants, and starting the laundry. By noon I had gone for groceries, done most of the laundry, and was ready for lunch and a nap.

The cats have been quite solicitous since I got home. They were overjoyed to be outside on the deck again and it turns out they've developed a taste for beet greens. The lush wheat grass tray I have inside seems to have lost its appeal and they have been snacking on the baby beet greens periodically since I let them out onto the deck. Of course, that means mopping up the cat barf periodically as well, with tiny beet leaves amid the guck.

Somebody remarked last night at my Eliot dinner table that he thought all ministers must be extroverts, that it just must be a necessity. I allowed as how I have always registered high on the Extrovert scale, according to Myers-Briggs, but since I became a minister, I have needed so much more alone time that I am pretty sure I am at least half-Introvert nowadays.

Anyhow, I'm now home from Eliot, looking forward to going to church tomorrow with my Whidbey folks, sleeping in my own bed, and the prospect of a few days with one friend who will arrive on Monday. She's one of those folks who doesn't need entertaining, is content to read a book or just hang out and talk. She's recuperating from successful hip surgery earlier in the summer, so she's not moving very fast either. I predict we'll have a nice slow time together!

3 comments:

Lizard Eater said...

Enjoy your rest; may it give you some rejuvenation.

And if I'm ever anywhere even REMOTELY close to where you live, I'm coming for a visit! :)

LE

Lilylou said...

Oh, please DO come visit, LE! It would be great fun!

juffie said...

Welcome home. And in the old Myers Briggs books for the different professions, ministers are supposed to be very introverted - well, in the old days of sitting in one's study and doing a bit of counselling maybe. I'm right on the mid-line, getting more and more introverted as the days go by. But don't know how anyone can function as a minister today who isn't deeply extroverted -- so many people so much of the time!