When is the last time you were alone? I mean REALLY alone?

Before this past weekend, I think that my honest answer would have been, oh, about 15 years ago. My husband travels frequently for business, leaving me “alone”…with my kids. I do take the occasional weekend away from my family with my best friend or with the golf girls. But, I’m not really “alone.”

This past weekend, my husband loaded the kids up in my minivan and they drove to Florida for the weekend, leaving me to my own devices for THREE WHOLE DAYS. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself.

A little while after they left, I e-mailed my husband and said, “I’m thinking I’ll clean the house so it will be all perfect when you get home on Sunday!” About a half hour later, as I was sipping on my third cup of coffee, puzzling over Sudoku and thinking about seeing if anyone was around to play golf, I e-mailed him again saying, “Please disregard the previous e-mail.”

Several hours later, while I was being deliciously naughty, feet up on the couch reading my book in the middle of the afternoon, I realized that I had not had to answer any questions that started with, “Where is…” You see, days and days go by where I’m pretty sure that my only function in my family is to identify the location of rogue baseball caps, runaway iPods and, of course, THE FOUR PHONE HANDSETS FOR THE HOME PHONE ON WHICH NO ONE CALLS US.

As the weekend progressed, I brought decadence to a new level. I kicked laundry baskets to the side. I let dishes linger in the sink. I found willing friends and golfed whenever possible. I left a scrambled-egg-spattered frying pan lazily loitering on the stove. I read for hours, immersing myself in the plot of a brilliant CSI-esque murder mystery. No pillows were fluffed, no sheets were smoothed and no comforters were unfolded in the making of my weekend! I solved Sudoku (and on the weekend, they are HARD!!!) without feeling guilty about all the productive things I could be doing.

There were a few beers and a few glasses on wine thrown in there…shared with my friends who envied my solitude. But there was no partying until the wee hours. No hangovers.

If you are waiting for the part where I say, “But I really couldn’t enjoy it because I missed my husband and kids too much.”…don’t hold your breath. My husband was getting some much needed work done. The kids were having a fabulous time with their friends in Florida. And I was getting just a touch of solitude…just enough really. One big happy…though slightly disjointed…family.

Diane appears every Saturday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Diane at her blog, Live and Let Di.