Housesitting

This past week, I have been housesitting for my dance teacher. I've done it before for a weekend (where I ended up spending most of the time at my own house, and only coming over to feed the animals in the morning because I was too much of a chicken to stay the night in an empty house by myself!)

BUT. This week (or rather, 10 days) I was determined not to be a chicken and to spend the whole time here. By myself.

Imagine my surprise then, when I discovered that I actually really enjoyed the experience! I found a new sense of freedom in being wholly responsible for myself. It kind of crept up on me, and then one afternoon when I was sitting on the couch watching countless episodes of Private Practice, I realised that I was enjoying being by myself! I found this unusual, because I am very much a people person, and a noise person who always has music or the tv on in the background. But nevertheless I got a simple kind of joy out of doing whatever I wanted and coming and going as I pleased.

That's not to say that I don't get to do this at home, or that I don't love being at home. I do.

(Hi Mum, I know you're totally going to read this, and don't freak out at me saying all of this!)

But right now, my friend Keisha is over, and she's making us both dinner with Taylor Swift playing on my iPod in the background while I sit at the kitchen table on the computer writing this. And there's something very grown-up about it all that I'm enjoying.

I've had a few "I'm a grown-up" moments this past eight days, where just the act of backing out of the driveway or collecting the mail or switching off all the lights at night stops me and makes me realise how much I'm enjoying the experience of getting to play "adult".

Naturally, my mum was quick to point out that part of the reason it's so enjoyable is because I don't have any bills to pay :)

Which quickly brought me down to earth, but still... I'm really liking this whole thing.