What happens when an Extrovert's husband leaves for the weekend?

On Friday evening, my husband left with some friends for the weekend. And, with a freezer full of ice cream, baby carrots and cookie dough in the fridge, and the BBC miniseries Emma lined up on the Amazon Prime queue, I faced my first weekend of solo parenting since Peter was born nearly five months ago.

In general, Friday was a very exhausting day (sleep regression is happening over here, housework and other projects are piling up) so after I bid my husband farewell, Peter and I spent the rest of the evening watching Emma (I made sure to tell him, periodically, "Remember: Don't be a Frank Churchill. Be like Mr. Knightley.") and playing before he finally drifted off to sleep. I also arranged my schedule for Saturday, so that we'd be able to dash away on epic adventures.

See, as an extrovert, I become energized by going places and meeting people. So, whenever my husband makes weekend plans out of town, knowing that I won't have another adult to interact with at home, I immediately try to find events and places I can travel to. That way, I can enjoy spending time with people, and discover new places and events to share with my husband later on.



Saturday, I jumped out of bed to greet the day and whisked Peter and myself off to morning Mass at our parish. Then, we journeyed to the Farmer's Market downtown. I was pretty excited to go explore, because I hadn't been to a Farmer's Market in years. I didn't even know that Oklahoma City had a year-round one until recently (and then, while at the market, I was told of another year-round Farmer's Market nearby!).

This coffee truck was at the Farmer's Market. Once people
bought their coffees, they would go inside to sit on the top level.
How cool is that??

I had such a good time browsing the booths of fresh vegetables, beef, and bread. I loved talking with all of the people working booths, too. One woman proudly whipped out her camera to show me the rows of broccoli that she grows on her Oklahoma farmland. Another woman excitedly began talking with me about babywearing. And one married couple, as they gave me samples of their delicious microgreens and let me gaze at their gorgeous three-week-old baby, talked with me about midwifery, homebirth, and urban farming.

After spending about an hour or so at the market, Peter and I drove back up to our parish so we could walk over to The Changing Table, a local parenting store that was celebrating its seventh anniversary. Thrive Mama Collective, a partner of the store, was also celebrating its one-year anniversary. So, these two groups had an open house, prize giveaways, and delicious cake. It was so much fun! Families were everywhere; little children ran around, playing with toys, a couple dads surveyed their children's playtime, and bunches of moms clustered here and there, sharing our stories and experiences with each other. It's really remarkable how pregnancy and childbirth can bond women together, you know? You'll start chatting with another woman (but neither of you even think to introduce yourselves) and you start discussing any variety of intimate topics, like one's pelvis alignment. Anyways, the whole time was simply lovely, and we even got to formally meet a married couple who goes to our parish! (we see them at Mass all the time, but have never actually been able to introduce ourselves before)

This kid was such a cheerful trooper as I whisked him to and fro for
7 hours nonstop.

After a while, Peter and I left because I wanted to go vote, so that I wouldn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn on Tuesday. Well, I don't know much about anything, but I just naturally assumed that I could go vote at my normal polling place, which is just around the corner from my apartment. There were tons of cars in the parking lot of the church, but that makes sense if there's early voting, right? I walked in, to discover craft booths everywhere, and so many Christmas decorations. It was crazy. Very confused, I started asking a random lady if she knew where voting was. Another woman came by, overheard me, and said, "Oh, early voting doesn't happen here; this church only has voting on election day. I've had to tell so many people that over the past couple days." Well, at least I wasn't the only one who missed the memo! I called the county's Election Board, who informed me that as long as I made it in line before 2 p.m., I'd be able to vote.

So, I rushed home (it was about 1 p.m. at the time), and quickly ate lunch, took care of Peter, and got directions for the polling place (which was about a 20 minute drive away). We then jumped back into the car and went out to the other side of the city. But, when we got to the polling place at 1:45 p.m., I looked at the line and my heart sank. The line (which was not single file) wound halfway around a massive parking lot, and I knew we'd be in line for a very, very long time...and I decided that I didn't want to attempt it alone. So, I guess I'll be waking up at the crack of dawn with my husband on Tuesday.

After a quick stop at Super Cao Nguyen for some chrysanthemums and tonkatsu sauce (since it was on the way home), we finally arrived home, and Peter excitedly took a big nap while I ate cookies, thought about what a great day it had been, and watched Urban Fruit while thinking about how much fun it would be to start a small container-garden sometime. But, since I kill every plant that I come into contact with, that may not work out to well. So in the meantime, perhaps I'll just try to make it out to more Farmer's Markets and support the local agricultural community while meeting awesome people.

Well, I am off to go soak up the last few minutes tranquility before Peter wakes up from his nap. I hope that you all have an amazing start to your week!