Everything I love about this experience are the things he hates (the nice drive up, the nature sounds, the change of place). Oh well, being in a couple means making compromises. And I pay for everything, so he has to put up with doing stuff I want to do that he doesn’t.

Back in the real world, I need to build a fence, reseed the lawn, make curtains, and do all sorts of misc. household tasks. And also work 9 hours a day, spend time with friends, blah blah blah. It’s just A Lot sometimes. Not as much as last summer when I was moving over and over again and dealing with the stress of buying a house and everything else, but still something. Anyway, since I am working remotely, I like to do little one or two day get aways in the middle of the week up to the lake house, just to get away from everything for a bit.

This means Albie Dog has to spend an hour and a half in a car with lots of bumps and noises and weirdness and usually not the temperature he likes (either too hot or too cold). And then we get here and the water tastes funny and everything smells wrong and the house is WAY too big so he can’t always find me, and he refuses to eat, and is just generally miserable. He finally collapsed last night around 9pm.

And then about 1am he woke me up, probably because he heard a scary noise. I calmed him down eventually, but it was very scary.

Now we are sitting on the porch, which is exhausting, because he has to be Always Alert because of all the Nature around that he has to watch. Squirrels, birds, small children running and screaming, it’s just a nightmare.

Anyway, he will survive, and tonight I will drive back to the city feeling all refreshed and relaxed. And Albie Dog will sleep for 2 days straight in relief to be home.