Yep, I’m missing him.

My partner has just gone away for a week-long course, and I’m dealing with empty house syndrome. I don’t know how long-distance lovers do it.  I’ve been tossing and turning every night in the empty bed, and time stretches by interminably in the evenings.  I’m listening to Mexican band Maná sing “Sábanas Frías” and thinking, “That’s exactly my problem.”

The transition from being single to being in a long-term, committed relationship has always fascinated me.  Put another way, it’s that transition from “me” to “we.”  There’s a point in any relationship where you stop thinking of yourself as “I” and start thinking of how things will affect you as a couple or as a family.

Once you make that transition, you feel amputated when your other half is gone.  You forget how you used to spend your time when you were single.  You forget what it was like to eat whatever you wanted for dinner and spend the entire evening without saying a word.  All your single skills desert you.

Only a few years ago, I used to relish my single freedom.  I loved working on my own projects in the evening.  I’d get home, pour myself a glass of champagne, and watch “Friends” while cooking my dinner.  I never seemed to have any spare time.  So why am I finding it so hard now to enjoy a week by myself?

According to almost every relationship expert I’ve read, having time away from each other will be good for our relationship.  I suppose I can see their point.  All this spare time is giving me too much time to think. I can’t stop thinking about him and how much I enjoy our life together and how much I enjoy it when we’re all home.  It’s made me appreciate the laughter and craziness and chaos of our evenings. The old cliché: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

I’m sure that somewhere, in the back of my mind, part of me thought I was missing something by giving up my single life, but after this week I have all the proof I need. Actually, it was my single life that was missing something.

I’d love some comments on this.  How do you manage to make it through when your long-term partner or mate goes away?