Sunday, October 16, 2005

Being an empty nester ...

It really stinks not having any children in the house for the first time in 24 years.
My son called home today for the first and only time hes allowed to while he's at boot camp. He called to give his mailing address. We tried to talk to him but the DI was in the background yelling at him to get off the phone. They were only allowed to say the mailing address and thats it. We tried to circumvent the process by asking him only yes or no questions but that didn't work either. Our one and only contact with him for the next 6.5 weeks lasted a total of 60 secs. Then he was gone.

Now that we are offical members of the Empty Nest Society(ENS) we are trying to find ways to fill the void in our lives. My wife has chosen to fill this void by talking to me. Not just normal conversational talk, but yaking to me constantly. Like when I'm watching my favorite shows on television. Tonight I missed the plot on CSI Miami because she was talking to me. I was trying to tune her out like I have for the past 25 years, but now my tuner doesn't work. Maybe my son took the batteries with him when he left. All I could hear was her yaking at me. I even asked her to stop. But she couldn't. We ended up laughing at each other about it. I'm going to have to find her a new hobby or I'll end up having to have real conversations with her !

I'm just as bad. I don't know what to do with myself either. I've cooked, cleaned, washed, mowed, burned the trash, took out the garbage, etc. I seem to have boundless energy. I told her I must be going into a bipolar mania phase. The only phase I'm going into is missing my son.

I hope belonging to the ENS isn't going to be painful for much longer. On the postive side, this has really brought my wife and I closer together. We seem to have a special bond- like train wreck survivors!

And for the record- I haven't smoked for 17 days in a row. I can actually breathe better now.

4 comments:

Jackie Bolen said...

Wow...boot camp sounds pretty extreme!

jane said...

You ARE a non-smoker and you know it. right on!
I have such admiration for both you & your wife, you're both so involved in your son's life. It's normal to hear a mom missing her son so, but rarely do dads admit that.
You men do tune us out! I never thought my Tarzan did, until one time I forgot what I was saying & asked him and you know what? He didn't know either. I was heartbroken at first, but now we laugh about it because honestly, I do talk too much. (but that's just because he doesn't talk enough!)

very touching post

Maggs said...

Hi. Just stumbled across your blog from other bipolar blogs. pleased to meet you.

sorry that you are now have an empty nest. i can't relate-i have a 2 yr old.

hope that you don't get too manic.

Anonymous said...

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