Two of the three bedrooms are storage now and the youngest left for college in August, so the house has an echo I'm still getting used to. I started last Tuesday. That first morning I made my usual giant pot of coffee out of pure habit, then stood in the kitchen holding a mug that nobody was going to ask me for.
The walking is the part that caught me off guard. I mapped a 1.4-mile loop past the library and I've done it five mornings straight. Nothing heroic, but I come home and actually want to cook instead of ordering something.
Honestly, the jitters aren't really about the medication. They're about the quiet. Nobody's schedule runs my day anymore, which sounds like a gift until 6pm arrives and the only person deciding what dinner looks like is me.
For those of you further along than I am, did the first stretch feel more like relief, or more like standing in a room you don't quite recognize yet?