Stepping out of the box.

Or in this case, the house.

I was with some of my mom-friends last week, and the couple of us who are single were talking about how hard it can be to "get out there" and meet guys. Decent guys. Nice guys. I keep being told that they exist, but I have yet to discover one...not that I'm ready to jump into a relationship or anything, but a date once in a while would be nice.

One of my friends pointed out to me that I have to actually get out of my house in order to meet someone. I laughed, but realized just how true it really was - other than taking kids to and from school and running errands, I really never *go* anywhere.

So today I decided to do something about it. No, I didn't go out with the intention of finding Mr. Right, but I went out. Just me. No kids.

It was odd. But it was a good odd.

I went to a local coffee shop with a couple of books, ordered some extremely overpriced food and a vanilla cappucino and just sat and enjoyed. The place was packed when I got there (thanks to dropping Daniel off at school at 12:30 and then heading right over) but I sat there and I ate and I watched people and I read my books, and enjoyed that I was (a) not in the house, (b) not running errands, (c) kid-free, and (d) not cleaning. I have enjoyed my kid-free time since the kids have been in school, but I don't know that I've done anything just for myself with the free time.

It was nice. The coffee shop was nice. After the lunch rush, it emptied out. Like, totally emptied out. And was quiet. I was the only person there. So yeah, it's not like it was a meeting ground for singles, but still - I got myself out of the house. And I did something totally for me.

I love this lamp. Not enough that I would want it in my house, but I love it anyway.

I sat there for about an hour and a half, and just absorbed everything around me. And I enjoyed myself so much that I might just have to make it at least a weekly outing. The nice thing with it being right here in town is that it only takes a few minutes to get there so I don't have to rush like I do when I go to Wichita to do stuff.

I don't know why I've never done this before. Fear, maybe? Regardless, I did it. I can't just hide away in my house forever.

And after I got done there, I took a stroll through a used bookstore nearby - all of the books (thousands upon thousands of them) are donated, and the money that they make goes to charity. They had books in literally every category that I could think of, and I could have spent hours in there - but instead, I'm going to go back next week and pick up some books for the kids for Christmas - inexpensive gifts and helping charities at the same time. Bonus!

All in all, I'd say that it was an ok day. It started out rough with some major attitude issues - and a few more this evening - but nothing that we can't work around and get past (I hope). Tomorrow morning we have to be up early to get the girls to basketball practice, and then the older 3 are with their father for the rest of the weekend. I have no idea if Alex's father is planning on seeing him or not (go figure) so it'll just be me and Alex and Daniel for the weekend. We have nothing planned, and I like it that way!