Fairy Tale Blues

I just finished reading, “Fairy Tale Blues,” a story about a woman who took a six-month break from her marriage in order to save it.   It was a little cheesy, but hey, what do expect for a $1 in the sale bin at Borders?  Yawn. Don’t get me wrong, the woman was brave (sort of)—she walked out of the restaurant during their anniversary dinner celebration, got in her car, and drove off with no plan.  She ended up at the airport, and decided to just leave her ski-bum husband in Jackson Hole, Wyoming to go clear her head on the beaches of Florida.

She could do this because her sons were grown and already off to college, she had a great store manager to cover for her so she didn’t have to worry about her part in running their family sporting-goods store, and she was able to afford the airfare, and the hotel she subsequently checked herself into, and all the new clothes she had to buy when she got there because she hadn’t packed a thing…

That’s the part that really spoke to me.  I like to imagine myself in a CVS store in some strange town, picking out a new toothbrush.  Why this is so incredibly attractive to me begs to be examined.  Wouldn’t it be easier to just run out to the drug store and buy some new toiletries once in a while than leave my children and the man I have been with for twenty years wondering where on earth I went?  I think so.

That’s the thing about sabbaticals.  They aren’t easy to orchestrate.  Not everyone is in a position to take one. “Eat, Pray, Love” made me roll my eyes.  Please.  I kept thinking, “Who wouldn’t be a new woman after running around the globe, eating whatever the hell she wanted and sleeping with gorgeous foreigners?”

I think it’s safe to say we have all fantasized about taking off at one point or another.  If you haven’t, I’ll buy you lunch.  I have a friend who drove around with her packed suitcase in the trunk of her car for weeks but never actually went anywhere.  She just felt better knowing she had the option.  What’s tough is initiating change, of any kind.  Once you’re actually off and running, it gets easier and easier, until you can’t remember ever being afraid to go try something new.

Don’t worry, I am not thinking of leaving the Professor, First Born Prince, Charming Baby, Lucky Bastard even though he poops on my kitchen floor or Her Royal Majesty, although she did barf on the duvet cover I just washed and ironed myself!   We are wrapping up our sabbatical and now, as I am planning the move back to California, I need to steady myself for reentry.  Shopping for a new toothbrush sounds a lot more appealing right now.