Adjusting

Well, I’m getting back to a routine…

Suzie went home to NH last week. The time since then has been a little strange. I got very used to having her here, and even though I’ve lived alone for the better part of 7 years, things felt a little off once she was gone. Gizmo missed her when she left, too. He sat in front of the door to the apartment and waited for her to come back in for almost an hour. And when she didn’t, he curled up on the couch, stared at the door and pouted. He spent the next several days mad at me – he’d leave the room when I came into it, and would sit with his back to me all the time. He’s come around – the days I went to work and he was alone, he was starving for attention as soon as I came in the door, and the desire to be petted clearly outweighed the resentment at Suzie being gone.

I spent the majority of last night and this morning setting my house to rights. My week of working daylight for CERT Training left my house in chaos. I had lived out of a duffel bag and a lunch box all week, and the state of affairs in the apartment were a testament to that -- Laundry left wherever it landed, dishes piled in the sink, and cat hair everywhere. So, I cleaned. It made me feel better.

And today, life falls back to it’s normal rhythm. I’m back on 3-11 shift starting today, and it feels good to get back into the swing of things. Tomorrow I’ll go back to the gym for the first time in what feels like forever, and I’ll start counting down the days till my vacation – 2 weeks exactly until I get to take off on an adventure. I’m looking forward to taking my time driving home – taking the very scenic route and driving up the coast the whole way. It will take me a couple days, as I plan to stop often for pictures and such. There are some lighthouses along the way that I want to hit, and a couple wineries in Rhode Island that I want to visit. After a wonderfully full and busy summer, I’m looking forward to some time to myself with my camera. This trip is exactly what I need.

This week was crazy – in a really good way. I had tactical training for the prison, and with its completion, officially became a member of our CERT Team. CERT (Corrections Emergency Response Team) is essentially the prison equivalent of SWAT. The training was fun – firearms, and tactical maneuvers. I qualified on every round of weapons testing on the first try. I think I surprised a few people – myself included. And the officers I went through with were great, and it was nice to get to spend some time with the officers from other shifts that I don’t get to see as much of. All-in-all, the week was a success. Exhausting and painful, but a success.