She Wants to be ALONE!!

I'm bummed.

First off, only Meme wants to be alone .... NOT ME! Not by a long shot, not my thing. I am a big time social animal so I don't get any of this.

But this week Poppy went on a big trip. He's gone the whole week and Meme is dancing as fast as she can! After Poppy left on Sunday she came home and started planning "her week". All of a sudden she had endless days in front of her with no responsibility whatsoever.

WAIT JUST A SECOND HERE! No responsibility? She'd better darned well not forget to walk me!

Anyway, here's the thing. Way back when, or 'back in the day', as they say, Meme lived in New York all by herself. There was a time when she was alone and desperately lonely. There's nothing worse than that as I well know. I get lonely every time my people leave the house. Like I say I'm a social animal.

But she says there's a big difference between being "alone" and being "lonely". Loneliness is believing there's no one there for you and you're all alone in the world. Being alone means you're not all alone in the world; there's just no one there.

It's quiet, there are no voices, no static, no criticism, and best of all no guilt. Meme says that for just this week it's okay to laze in bed just a little too long, get in the shower late, take all the clothes out of the closet, try them on and decide whether to keep them ... take all the spices out of the cabinet and toss the stale ones, pull junk out of everywhere and toss it before Poppy comes home because he would say if it isn't broken we keep it and anyway it might be a "collector's item". Those two words are like chalk on a blackboard for Meme!

This is a time she can blast her Bose, throw on her favorite CDs and play them as loud as she wants, dance around like a crazy woman and no one will laugh. She can read as long as she wants in the morning without worrying that she's ignoring Poppy and he'll get sad.

And she can eat whatever she wants whenever she wants ... no planning menus, hardly any dishes. Do you know she actually bought a Hershey's King Size Almond Bar, opened it, left it out on the counter, breaking it away from time to time to let the delicious chocolate melt in her mouth with no guilt whatsoever?

Because if a tree falls in the forest and no one's there, it doesn't make a sound. And if you cheat on your diet, and no one is there, you don't gain anything. Bet you didn't know that!

So we're alone. We're having a great week. Every day around 5:00 Meme and I pop in the car and drive to get the mail. This is my favorite place in the world to walk. We walk all over up there where there's tons of walkways, bushes, and grass ... more sniffs than a dog could possibly ever hope for. I've been sticking pretty close to her side because it's just us and I have to watch out for her.

And at night, when we go to bed, Meme lay out a T-shirt of Poppy's she pulled from the laundry. I sleep on it and it smells just so good! I have no idea why in the world they keep washing all this stuff ... spoils all the fun.

So being alone is good ... I'm getting to like it because somehow deep in my little brain I know this is temporary. The great thing about being alone is knowing you're not. It's knowing that in a few days we'll drive to the airport and I'll look out the window and see Poppy walking toward me with those awful suitcases I saw in his Den just before he left.

He'll get in the car and I'll squeal and kiss him all over his face. I will be so excited to see him because he really is my absolute favorite human in the whole world (don't tell Meme).

Coming apart is fun for awhile, but coming together is the best part of all.

'Til next time ...
Molly