Day Two of My Empty Nest: Reality Starts to Set In

I woke up this morning to a "lovely" surprise--my dog had been sick (erupting from both ends) all over my sun room floor.
Fortunately, my floors are hardwood, not carpeting, so the mess was fairly easy to deal with (although I did have to keep my gag reflex in check several times during the course of the yucky clean up). 

So this, thought I, is my "new normal"--my kid away at his far-off studies, and the only "child" in the immediate vicinity the kind who doesn't use a toilet.

Lucky moi.

After dancing the samba at a brief pity party, I had to admit that, unpleasant as it was, there was some solace in the mopping up. It was so immediate, so real life, that it actually helped dispel a bit of the torpor, disorientation and overwhelming sense of loss I'd been feeling on Empty Nest, Day One.

Said I to myself, "Welcome to your 'new normal'. See, it isn't so bad."

And, eventually, I will get used to it. Even if, as I remarked to a good friend yesterday, the 'new normal' is still much too new to feel normal.