After the excitement of celebrating J's PhD, having family and friends in town and traveling up to D.C. to see even more friends at a big party this weekend died down, I found myself sitting in my parents' house in Alexandria Sunday, absolutely exhausted. So, even though it was about 100 million degrees outside, I decided to take a bath. My parents have a fairly big bathtub and, even better, have a rather incredible assortment of bath products - so many a person could really get caught up trying them all out. Bath salts? Sure. Foot scrub? Definitely. Most of this stuff is sitting around unused, since my parents aren't really the bath types. They're more the quick shower, coffee and get moving types, which, honestly, I like better too, but every once in a while it's nice to do something totally unnecessary and relaxing like breathing in the scents of aromatherapy crystals or, you know, whatever you've got at your disposal.

The other thing that was so great about my Sunday afternoon, was that it was the first time in a while I'd been completely alone.

Give me the choice between a quiet night in by myself and a loud party with hundreds of friends and strangers and I'll take the party nine times out of 10, so when I feel like I want to be alone, I really need it. So, since J was off gallivanting at the local wildlife preserve and marsh, looking for another bird species to add to his Life List, I played around with some really expensive facial exfoliant and took a nice long soak in the bathtub. I mean, it wasn't that long, because, seriously, it's hot as hell outside, but still, it was exactly what I needed.

Doing things like that for yourself every once in a while really makes a difference, and now that we're really on the brink of moving (August 29) and haven't, ah, really done any sort of substantial packing, and are thinking about houses and jobs and money and driving the moving truck, I'm going to have to remember to take a break every now and then so I don't, you know, lose it. Beat people up.

So I thought maybe in the comments section people could share their favorite ways to relax. Anything, because I know mine range from the really simple, like watching the Food Network, to the really extravagant, like getting an $100 massage.

Even though I'm using my current state of mind as a springboard, it's not all for my benefit. I figure everyone feels better when they hear that other people get anxious and need to de-stress every now and then. It always makes me feel good to hear people's tips, recipes, etc. after I write a post. That's one of my favorite things about writing a blog...the feeling of connectivity with all these people.

So let's hear it. I'll start - A good glass of wine at the end of the day. What? You didn't think I didn't know about that one already, did you?