If not laundry…sunset

Work.

Work.

More work.

A cliché of fast-paced modern life, but that’s the way things have been for me lately. It’s also the reason I haven’t posted lately; why I’ve been away from my you, my blog world friends.

Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but  my family and I are living in a hotel. We’ve just sold our home of twenty-three years and are in temporary housing ’til our new home is remodeled.

This is quite a “hotel,” I have to admit—we have a suite with two bedrooms and two baths, living room and full efficiency kitchen.

The pathway between units at this Marriott Residence Inn, more like a condo complex than a hotel. Sorry this is a little dark, but it was dusk when I snapped this with my phone.

Being here is better than living in an apartment, at least for us. Every day, we get a great buffet breakfast, along with a modest supper on four weekday nights. Considering the meals and the maid service (they clean, make the bed, and even do the dishes!) I feel as if I’m on vacation. Finally, a true stay-at-home traveler, I guess.

Of course, this allows me to spend hour after hour doing catchup work on tons of tasks I had to neglect during the throes of our move. I won’t bore you with my huge list, but merely say the biggest job is preparing to do our income tax, gathering receipts and tallying voluminous data.

So much for excuses for my blogosphere absence. Back to the dirty wash.

During this heavenly hiatus from cooking and housework, dirty laundry never goes away. So, today, I trudged to the hotel’s laundry room in hopes of taking care of this chore.

The small but effective laundry room. Someone left a dryer door open, obstucting the view of the print on the wall.

Alas, every washing machine was in use. So, I left my dirty wash and detergent there  and proceeded out into the dusk.

A taste of the beauty of dusk on my hotel's "nondescript" street. (Again, a bit blurry, since taken with my phone.)

Thus forced to take a break from my workaday concerns, I went to the lobby, the place where the hotel provides afternoon cookies and coffee. I poured myself a cup and put two cookies on a napkin. The evening was balmy, so I took my little repast outside and sat at a table by the jacuzzi and pool.

The beginnings of sunset, as seen from beside the pool

I sat there, with nothing to do, at least nothing I wanted to start. I declined the option of beginning yet another income tax task only to have to interrupt it when the laundry room freed up. And so, I sat and let my gaze fall wherever it would land.

I scanned the poolside. My eyes were drawn to the trees overhead. Behind the branches swaying in the breeze, pastel pinks and blues, turning to lavender, painted the sky. The colors called to me from between the branches.

Sunset beauty, without even leaving "home"

I ate my cookies, sipped my coffee, and let my gaze drift where it willed.  Then I left refreshed, ready to tackle my work again.

Even the laundry.

Wherever you are, whatever the weather (and I know in many places, old man Winter is blasting a terrible chill), take a little break for yourself. You’ll be renewed.

And maybe–amid the mundane–you’ll experience the poetry of everyday life, the beauty of nature in balmy weather or in snow.

Bon voyage,

Rita Elizabeth