It’s been a while since I have been able to take myself on a date. I think it has been well over a month. A few things happened along the way. I went to Calgary to visit a friend for a week and that was a lovely distraction. We splurged on a weekend away in Banff at the Rimrock Resort Hotel, with not only a room with a mountain view, but a mountain view with a balcony. While it felt luxurious and decadent, it was most definitely a get-away with a friend and nothing like a date for myself. We wandered around Banff, Lake Louise, Canmore and along river fronts for two full days.

I came home to a very full work schedule and I learned that when I don’t plan ahead for dates for myself, I find it harder to make happen. I get caught up in the hurley burley of my days and I put myself and my relationship with myself on the back burner. I thought it didn’t matter so much, because 10 days after coming back from Alberta, I was headed away for a weekend with my mom and sister.

Again, I loved the time with my sister and my mother. We met in Cobourg which is somewhat in the middle between London (where my sister lives) and Ottawa (where I live). My mom lives in Sault Ste. Marie and she headed to London and traveled with my sister to Cobourg for the weekend. We had a wonderful time together, including some pampering time with a day long spa visit together, but again, it wasn’t date time.

Then, I took a day and went to pick up my daughter’s new service-dog-to-be puppy from the breeder and drive her home. I spent a full day driving and picking up puppy and taking her home. Her name is Dolly Parton (again, my daughter’s dog, and her name choice for an adorable yellow labrador puppy) and she is a beautiful but busy and active labrador puppy. Between supporting my daughter with puppy care – including waking up every two hours to let the puppy out – and doing my day job, I felt exhausted. I knew it would be for just a couple of weeks and it would start to balance itself out.

And then a huge part of Ontario and parts of Quebec were hit with a storm, a kind of storm I never knew existed before. A derecho storm that was 1,100 km in length whipped through the region and Ottawa was very badly hit. At one point, there were over 160,000 customers without power in the Ottawa area. The whole Ottawa Hydro outage mapped was red with a few white spaces indicating those who had power.

My neighbourhood was particularly badly hit and we were without power for 7 days. We were without internet and cell service for 9 days. With a new puppy. It was exhausting and it was survival mode. I emptied fridges and freezers and tossed out hundreds of dollars worth of food. My daughter and I juggled the puppy, her other dog and ourselves to get showers and food and moments of electrical connection.

Well, with the good and the challenging times over the past month, time for myself got rather crowded out and I have missed that intentional time. And, as is my pattern, I found my schedule packed with work, family and friendship obligations and interests and not enough time for me to date myself. The reason for starting these adventures in dating myself remains the same – I will allow the demands of everything else in my life to fill in the crevices without realizing that I am not taking the time to pay attention to my needs, interests or time.

While I don’t have a juicy, or mild date planned for myself in the next little while, I do have a plan to make some dates for myself. I now have the daunting task to fit 39 more dates into 30 weeks! Although only 10 dates are posted, I do have an 11th date waiting in my draft posts to finalize and post. So, a few more weeks with a couple of dates extra per week.

It remains my commitment to be in relationship with myself and I will get back there. I miss me.