Going Off the Grid

Today is I.'s science camp before preschool so I'll have 4+ hours of unadulterated time to myself. Or as I have named it, "off the grid" time. I know I'll have plenty of that once I. is in kindergarten and then I'll be crying because I won't have all the time with her that I have. But that's then and this is now. Now being I've been a stay at home momma for the last 4.5 years and pretty much the only one on duty 24/7 thanks to V.'s demanding, family-separating job. That's enough to make anyone celebrate some time to themselves, wouldn't you say?

I've enlisted my good friend Terry to help me make my "off the grid" time as different as possible from my typical day, which is the whole point of my time off. With his job, he can sneak off the grid for a little while and he's not going to wear his uniform today since a 6'3" man in a uniform does tend to draw stares especially when "accompanied by a good looking woman". Those were his words not mine.

Now we're not off to do anything heinous. We are going to do with brought us together as friends in the first place back in the day when I was the project manager and he was the client. That is, we're going to have lunch at a cheap Mexican place and then drive around exploring areas of San Diego right around here that I haven't seen yet. Since this is now his command area, he knows all these areas that I, having lived here for 10 years, haven't seen. Back in the day, he and I would drive all over San Diego to potential project sites and then we would have to sit there in a police car for 4 hours straight, counting traffic and taking down stats. That's how we became friends, just driving around, sitting there talking and being goofy for hours. And that's what we're going to do today if just for a couple of hours.

Afterwards, I'm hoping to have time to relax at the pool and thumb through a magazine since it's such a beautiful day. I think I did a bang-up job planning out a day as far from my daily life as possible. Stay tuned tomorrow to hear how it went.