I woke up on Sunday ready to “exit the building,” so to speak.  I didn’t leave our property most of the prior week, choosing to work on projects at home instead.  On Saturday my husband took Polina out for the day to give me a break.  After letting me sleep in, he left a note for me on the bathroom mirror stating, “The day is yours.”

What did I do?  I cleaned the entire house.  I mean the ENTIRE house.  It took me almost five hours.  From vacuuming to dusting to ironing (yes, ironing) to sweeping to cleaning to putting things away, that is how long it took.  I am not counting the half hour I took to read a magazine that had been sitting underneath my coffee table since winter.

To be fair, part of that time was spent putting together a bird house that I bought in January that had been sitting on our dining room table.  It’s a birdhouse with a one-way mirror that attaches to a window with suction cups.  The idea is for birds to nest but not be disturbed by humans who want to observe them.  I bought it with the intention of putting it up in the spring so Polina can see how nests are made.  Spring came and went and the birdhouse became a part of the dining room table.  Every day we sat at the table and ignored it.

I have to say that I do keep a clean home for the most part.  I’m like my grandmother- I’m a cleaner.  When I live in a messy home, I have anxiety.  When I have anxiety, I clean.  For some reason, I cleaned my home around this birdhouse.  It finally got caught up in my cleaning frenzy and is now suctioned to our window.

So when Sunday rolled around, I felt an impetus to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE.  I have been wanting to go to a waterfront park in the city for a while now and decided today was the day.  Even better, parking is free on Sundays.  I called my friend David who I hadn’t seen in a while and told him I’d be in town.

The day started off cloudy but I could see a few sun breaks.  I dressed Polina and myself conservatively in case it got cold by the water.  By the time we got into town, I had taken off Polina’s long sleeved shirt and rolled up my jeans into shorts.  It was only 71 degrees, but it felt like 90.  I thought the beach would bring in a cool current.  No dice.  It was hot hot hot and little shade.

We got to a spot with some big rocks on it.  Polina, in her prim dress that she picked out for the day, decided to do some climbing.  I helped her up and she really enjoyed being on top of the rocks.

We took off our shoes to walk on the grass.  I noticed a bee flying by the grass but didn’t pay attention to it since it was away from us.  And then it happened- something that hasn’t happened to me in almost 35 years.  I got stung by a bee between my toes.  I knew it instantly, even though it hadn’t happened since the early 1980s.  It hurt a LOT.

I sat down and removed the stinger.  I worried how I would be able to walk back with Polina.  Then I grit my teeth and put Polina’s and my shoes back on.  From my memory, the last time I got stung by a bee, it hurt a while.  This time, however, I was surprised that the pain abated fairly quickly, to the point where there was no pain when I began walking a few minutes later.  I was relieved.

We headed back.  It was hot and Polina insisted I carry her.  When I met up with David, I was sweaty from carrying Polina.

“I’m au naturel today,” I told him.

“That’s why I like you,” he said.  What a charmer.

We had a good time eating and catching up.  I took a few pictures of him and Polina and he said he wanted to take a few pictures of me with my camera.  I don’t consider myself photogenic.  Ninety-nine percent of the time I don’t like the way I look in pictures.  David didn’t put on his glasses, so he was squinting to see the image on the back of the camera.  BUT, he took some really good photos of me and Polina, which made me really happy because there aren’t many pictures of me with Polina.  I’m usually the one behind the camera.

On the way home, we stopped at a park downtown we hadn’t been to in a while.  It used to be a hangout for homeless people.  The city put in ping pong tables and a play area for children and the park has really turned around.  A young woman began blowing some bubbles in the play area and the kids really enjoyed it.

It ended up being such a great day it made up for being cooked up in the house all week.  Polina was so tired she zonked out in the car.  It was a beautiful ending to a beautiful day.