Empty Nest: A Few Plans for the First Hundred Days

It's no secret that I'm having a hard time with this coop-fleeing shenanigans that my kids are up to these days. We dropped Peter and Danelle off at Washington State University in Pullman two weeks ago. Next Monday, we'll help Kat move into her new apartment in the University District, and two weeks later we'll settle Aleks into the Theta Chi fraternity at the University of Washington.

I've been whining about it all for months now, and I'm not about to stop now. But I am trying to see the up-side to this whole vacuumous situation. So here are ten things I plan to do within the first hundred days of being an official empty nester:

1. Eat dessert first.
2. Take off for a romantic weekend in San Francisco -- without telling the kids.
3. Buy some fancy-schmancy pesto-feta-pine-nut-frittatta thingamabopper at Trader Joes. It'll serve exactly two and cost, like $12.99.
   
4. Wash it down with a glass or four of two-buck Chuck.
   
5. Sing. Loudly. And poorly.
6. Have sex (yes, with their dad!) in the hall. At dinnertime.
7. Make Cream of Wheat (or nothing at all!) for dinner.
   
8. NOT wash 40 towels a week.
9. Come home in the evening to a house that's just as clean (or messy) as it was when I left in the morning.
10. Stand in five clean bedrooms... just to experience FIVE clean bedrooms! (I haven't insisted that the kids clean their rooms in at least six years -- but I AM insisting that their rooms be clean when they move out!)