Time Travel
If I had a nickel for every time I said, “Man, I wish I could go back in time and tell XX Years Ago Natalie about this,” I would have enough money to build a time machine and do just that. It’s something I find myself thinking about a lot—how much things can change over the course of a year, or even just a few months or weeks.
Most recently, it was triggered by something I uttered as Sean was on his way out the door to go into the office for the first time in months. We moved to Nashville for his job but had both been working remotely full-time…until his company decided to switch to a hybrid situation. Now he goes in one day a week. The first time he had to go in, I said, “Are you at least going to get off early? It would be pretty ridiculous if they made you come into the office AND stay until 5pm.” And as soon as the words left my mouth, I was like:
It’s incredible how quickly you can become accustomed to a new routine. We used to work in-office Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm, but suddenly I couldn’t IMAGINE Sean’s company would have the gall to make him come in for one full day a week. I’m pretty sure if I had gone back to Six Months Ago Natalie and told her about this little quote she’d utter in the spring of 2022, she’d roll her eyes and call me soft.
I have gotten soft, but I also can’t believe how much we used to squeeze into our days.
How It Was
My alarm would go off at 4:50am, giving me 20 minutes to get into my workout gear and stumble half-asleep out to the car to get to the gym for our 5:30am class. We’d get done around 6:30am, home by 6:40ish and then absolutely HUSTLE to get Kane fed and walked AND myself showered and at least somewhat presentable by 7:40am to allow for time to sit in stand-still traffic on the bridge into Bradenton.
When lunchtime rolled around, I’d race home to let Kane out and grab whatever food I could find. Heaven forbid there was a spring training game going on, in which case I’d never make it back to the office by 1pm.
After work, I’d make my way home to a very bouncy, full-of-energy Kane. I’d say, “Wanna hug?” and then he’d ZOOM into our bedroom, jump up on the bed and assume the position to hug me. This was my absolute favorite part of the day. Then we’d do dinner time, walk Kane and maybe watch something before bed.
Wake up and repeat the next day.
How It Is
Our days look a whole lot different now. My alarm goes off at 5:10am, and I hit snooze until I REALLY have to get up at 5:40am. Then I go to a 6am class five minutes from our house, head home, take a leisurely shower and make some breakfast before making my way to my desk two steps from the kitchen to start my work day. I don’t get hugs from Kane anymore, which, to be honest, made me a little sad at first, but I do realize now that it was kind of sad how happy he would be to hug me at the end of the day. I think what I was reading as excitement back then was really more of a panicked, manic THANK GOD YOU’RE HOME. Now he gets snuggles and love all day every day so the hug just isn’t necessary.
I do still get one when I get home from a weekend away. I actually also got one after a particularly long (4 hours) hair appointment the other day.
Anyway, I don’t remember where I was going with all of this, but yeah. I think it would be fun to go back in time and tell Past Natalie things that would blow her mind.
