12 things to do when your boyfriend is out of the country on business

This week my bf is out of the country on business. I guess we both slacked off a bit last year work-wise and are paying for it by having to work extra hard now. Okay, he's having to work extra hard and I'm having to work a kind of normal amount instead of being a slacker. Anyway, I started off the week all motivated and okay about it, and with three days left to go I am slowly dissolving into a puddle of pity and ennui.

So, here is my list of things to do when your boyfriend is out of the country on business:

1. Tell yourself you are going to learn CSS and XHTML frontwards and backwards in the next week. Maybe php, too! And AJAX! And Python! Get really psyched about it and get through almost 300 pages of CSS/XHTML book in a day and a half.

2. Realize that what you wanted to DO with your new web coding 2.0 skillzzzz is going to be harder than you thought. Start stressing about it a bit. Text bf several times even though you know he won't actually receive your text for about five days.

3. Wake up one morning to find out that you NO LONGER OWE ANYONE ANY MONEY FOR THEREBUCKS...it's been five weeks but you are all caught up in paying everyone. Be thrilled about this for about an hour until another large order comes in and you start worrying about the fact that part of your capital is actually your rent money.

4. Solicit more sellers anyway, enticing them with the promise of banner ads on your "new site", which it looks like is going to be delayed.

5. Go to two different stores and actually buy enough food that you won't have to open and reopen your cupboard and refrigerator doors a dozen times wondering what you could maybe eat and having to get all creative about it. This includes buying crapples, which are a bit expensive but seem pretty exotic and worth it until you realize the reason their grape flavor tastes so much like those freeze pops you used to have as a kid is that they are not genetic freaks but regular old apples injected with "natural and artificial flavors". Blech.

6. Find out wine is 20% off at Grocery Outlet this week. Woohoo! Just what you need when you are bored and missing your bf and not getting your work done...discount wine!

7. Call bf's cell phone to hear his voice, then remember his answering service doesn't actually have his voice on it. What's up with that? Leave him a message that includes you trying not to break down halfway through while you try to explain that you just wanted to say "hi" and are now going to go listen to his old voice messages to you. Feel like a sap.

8. Delay doing laundry for as long as possible in order to avoid having to interact with any of your building's tenants.


9. Become obsessed with an old cotton mill in Oakland that has been converted into live/work spaces for artists. Find out that it would actually be in your price range to live there, and would only take your bf 19 minutes to get to from where he lives instead of the 38 minutes it takes him to get to your place now. Realize it is actually the same building you pass by on the freeway all the time. The one that makes you turn to your bf every time and say "that's where I should live". Use Google Maps to find out it is only a mile and a half from your favorite movie theater. Also note it is much closer to the kitty oncologist and only a mile from a store devoted to cheese. Convince yourself it is your destiny to live there.

10. Waste WAYYYY too much time in the IMVU forums reading up on new gateway percentage fee. Spend way too much time in general on IMVU including reading home page messages including one that says "Hey Oldylocks, don't visit my page, only under 30 allowed" from some 17 yr old kid. Okay whatever, kidlet. Idly wonder if he came up with "Oldylocks" all by himself or if it is some pop culture reference. Do a google search and decide that he definitely didn't come up with it himself.

11. Become obsessed with phone. Where you used to forget it when you went to run an errand, now make sure it is never a few feet from you. Get call from bf and get really happy about it, but then feel even sadder than before. Because connection is not that great, feel a bit unsure about whether bf actually misses you as much as you miss him. He mostly just sounds tired.

12. Try and force self to get back to work and recapture the enthusiasm of earlier in the week. le sigh.

What the heck is wrong with me?