Onely.Org

Coming Home Onely September 18, 2008

Often it’s nice to come home to a smiling face, right? Sure. But our mission here at Onely is to seek, find, and relish those moments when significant others do not apply. 

When I was living with my then-boyfriend, when I came home from work he greeted me and wanted me to sit down on the couch and take a couple minutes to chat about our days. Sweet, right?

Yes, but I hated it. When I was a single woman, I liked to come home and immediately put my work bag on the kitchen table, take out my to-do notebook, recycle junk mail, pour a glass of water, go upstairs and throw on loose pants, pin back my hair, put my bag in its corner by the door, make sure everything is in its place or its pile, and then crash on the couch. I could not relax until I did my coming-home rituals. 

I wanted to just say hi to my boyfriend, smile, hug, maybe exchange quick chats while I put things away and changed, and then sit on the couch for two minutes–or longer, because I wouldn’t have any reason to get up off the couch once I pinned my hair back and poured my water. But he wanted me to adopt his unwinding technique–come home, drop shit on nearest horizontal surface, drop self on couch ASAP–without realizing that I was unwinding in my own way.

Now, as a Onely, I relish every single evening when I come home from work and putter unimpeded for five minutes before collapsing into my massage chair, next to the screen door, where my neighbors’ cats come to visit on the porch, and my glass of water sits at hand as I watch the Daily Show on my laptop. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..

Who else out there likes to come home to an “empty” house? Anyone? Copious Readership? ‘Lo?

–CC