A couple weeks ago, Charles traveled down to Nashville for a work trip and I promise you I love that man with all my heart but the truth is.. It was soooooo nice to have the place to myself for a week. As some of you may know, Charles and I have been together for about 7 years and out of that, we were long distance for 5 years. Since moving in together last summer, we’ve been by each other’s side almost everyday and it’s been a pretty smooth transition for the most part. The best part about living together is being able to come home after work each day and spend our evenings together in person instead of through Facetime. But… Having quality alone time is something I value and Charles’s work trip provided just the opportunity to spend some time with me, myself and I :)
^^ A peek into our living room and lack of T.V. We stream everything online.
^^ Squash Soup w/ Quinoa
^^ I work in an international office and many of my co-workers travel back and forth between D.C. and South Korea.
They always comes back with facemasks for everyone in the office so I have a growing collection.
^^ I don’t know about you but House Hunters International is my most favorite show in the world :)
^^ Red, Red Wine…
^^^ Freshly Baked Cookies
^^ My Main Teddy, Choco. His hands & feet are filled with aromatherapy beads that smell like chocolate :)
^^ My favorite HHI episodes are the ones that spotlight couples buying homes in the Caribbean…
Face masks, wine, chocolate chip cookies, a regency era romance novel & House Hunters International = How I like to spend my days when I’m by myself, with a few girlfriend dates sprinkled here and there as well :) When Charles is away, I like to dump my dirty clothes on the bathroom floor before I jump into the shower instead of in the clothes basket and stare at myself (while picking my face and playing with different makeup looks and hairstyles) in the mirror for hours on end. Hmmm… Let’s see what else? I like to sleep with my teddy bear, Choco, who I’ve had since the 6th grade. Poor Choco… When we first moved in together, Charles kept on throwing him out of the bed each night (he doesn’t like competing with Choco for my attention lol… men.) so my teddy bear now has a permanent spot on top of our dresser. But when Charles is gone? Choco goes back to being my main bed mate haha. And don’t even get me started on how I also have to make sure every single door in our apartment is closed and/or locked (twice through) before I go to bed when I’m home alone…
The one thing I enjoyed the most when Charles and I were loving long distance was having my own apartment/sanctuary. A space where I could do whatever I wanted, whenever and however I wanted. Moving in together and sharing a small apartment with Charles has changed all that but I’ve found ways to take time out for myself in the every day moments. I generally get up around 5:45 each morning before Charles wakes up to go workout or do yoga without interruption which helps to center my mind. Whenever I’m doing homework or reading, I make Charles go into the bedroom and watch whatever he’s streaming on the laptop with the door shut. I also make a point to go out by myself without Charles whenever possible… Not because I don’t want him around but because I think it’s healthy to miss one’s significant other every once in a while. I’ll take living together over long distance all day, every day but maintaining a sense of who we are individually within our relationship is something that is important to us both and having quality alone time is an aspect from our long distance experience that we try to maintain in our now co-habitative living situation.
How you do like to spend your “alone time”?
