Winter Quiet and Solitude

What do you think of when you see heels clicked together three times?  Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, clicking her heels to go home.  It’s iconic.  So when I saw a commercial with people doing the heel clicking thing, even without saying anything, I knew it had something to do with home.  Imagine my surprise when home = Pillsbury crescent rolls.  Since we only had them at my house for special occasions (since Mom never served bread with meals), it wasn’t an obvious leap for me.

Work was crazy this week with lots of meetings, snow, system down time, and playing catch up.  Yesterday I took off a bit early to take Tessie in to have her claws clipped.  The poor little sweetheart was not happy with me, but it was over fast and we came home to her favorite stinky wet food and mommy as a mattress for her to knead out her stress.  I actually feel happiest some days when I’m laying down and have her on my tummy, and I don’t care if I’m covered with cat hair.  In my house, it’s a condiment.

Things have been very quiet and solitary today.  We slept late, having stayed up last night to watch Letterman’s tribute to Great Moments in Presidential Speeches.   It was soooooooooo nice to sleep until I woke up – it’s amazing how much better I feel after getting 7 1/2 hours of sleep.  The kitty and I just snuggled into the covers and slept and dozed.  There’s something healing in not being a slave to an alarm clock.

I watched some TV, called and had a long chat with a friend in Vermont, and piddled around the house for most of the morning.  This afternoon my errands were defined and short — a stop at Shaws for carbonated water, filling the car with gas (have you noticed that the price goes up every time now?), getting the car washed to get rid of that icky white road salt, and finally a stop at the other grocery for a short list of things.  No Peapod this week; I didn’t need that much.

Tonight I had a rude shock when I worked on my taxes only to discover that I somehow owe almost a thousand dollars.  Gaaaak.  I need to talk with the HR folks at work to get my deductions changed on my W-4 form.  I thought something looked kind of odd but had gotten a raise plus there were different state taxes here, plus I filed differently last year because of moving expenses.  I’ve NEVER owed this much before and it definitely takes a unexpected cut out of savings.  I guess that vaguely possible trip to Paris that I’d been thinking about is out, at least this year.

I feel a bit as thought I’m hibernating.  I hate the bitter cold weather, the late sunrise and early dark.  Although I talk to people all the time, my circle of friends here is pretty small.  So I’m a little lonely – but really more solitary than that.  Sometimes I think I should feel more lonely but my constant communication with people via Twitter, IM, Facebook, blogs and phone calls fills that need.  At least for now.

It’s quiet and  Tessie is asleep on the couch.  We’re getting more snow tomorrow, probably not much but I don’t trust the weather people.  It’s nice to have another day to stay in bed and snuggle in.