Today we celebrate Hermit Day. (Don’t worry, I didn’t have a damn clue there was such a thing either.)
But my friend Eli over at Coach Daddy, who is clearly cooler than I am for knowing about this random holiday, told me all about it. For the second time he invited me to participate in his monthly 6 Words challenge, a fun project where he asks friends and strangers to dish out a cute little sentence based on a prompt of his choosing.
Now we writers love, love, love to elaborate on a topic for hundreds, sometimes thousands of words—meaning six words is kinda cruel. But it’s also a fun challenge so of course I agreed to do it.
The prompt…October 29th is Hermit Day, how would you spend an ideal day all to yourself, in six words?
Over eighty of us played along this time…wowza! (Be sure to stop by Eli’s to check them all out.)
Obviously writing and reading is something I do most of the time when I’m in hermit mode. Those books don’t write themselves.
But Eli caught me at a time when I was feeling rather mysterious, during my blogging and social media hiatus in September. Naturally, I gave a coy response.
I’m hanging somewhere in the middle at #39 with the following…
Secret single behavior, I’ll never tell.
For those who aren’t diehard Sex and the City fans like I am, there’s a really fantastic episode where Carrie Bradshaw discusses Secret Single Behavior (SSB).
This is the thing you often do when you’re all alone. It’s top-secret because it’s probably so weird that you don’t even want your own spouse to know about it.
Well, Mr. H and I are going on almost a decade of marriage so we don’t keep secrets from one another. Although he knows about my SSB’s, I perform these odd habits as they are intended to be performed. Totally alone.
Eli thought my Hermit Day response about SSB was intriguing and figured that my readers would too.
So, embarrassing as it is, I’m going to reveal one of my SSB’s on one condition—each of YOU needs to reveal an SSB in the comment section below.
Obviously this blog is a public place and while I’m all for a healthy sexual appetite, let’s keep it clean, people. The more random, the better.
As promised, here is one of my typical SSB’s…

MEET HAUSFRAU
Some years ago Hausfrau was a brilliant term coined by Mr. H when he kept walking in on me at the end of my SSB ritual of cleaning the holy shit out of our apartment.
There’s dance music blasting, a bright bandana on my head, dusty stretchy pants, and a mad look in my eyes. The cats stay far, far away from me, usually in a dark corner of the closet praying I don’t vacuum their furry butts.
When I clean, I get down. I get totally focused on a cleaning project and I don’t stop until it’s done. I don’t answer the phone, in fact I don’t even think about the outside world.
If I’m stressed or anxious, sure I meditate, practice Yoga, or hit the trails. But sometimes you just have to clean the hell out of an inanimate object to feel on top of the world. It works like a champ every time.
For those of you who are still following this blog after my SSB reveal, I have one more thing to add. Earlier this year I completed one of the greatest accomplishments in Hausfrau history.
I organized and cleaned my bobby pin container.
Well, folks. I shared one of my SSB’s…your turn!
I like to put on an old black and white movie and have a good sob or a good laugh depending on how I’m feeling. My favourites for this purpose – The Ghost and Mrs Muir or Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple 🙂
Love it! That’s another SSB of mine too. 🙂
I sing and dance. I pick music I can really belt out, and just go crazy. I have been known to clean and obsessively organize too — but I don’t necessarily do that only when I’m alone. 🙂
Yay! I love it!
I think I can speak for everyone else here. We’d like to see a video of your SSB song and dance. 🙂
Really people..cleaning on hermit day!?? haha
Although I can be quite an obsessive organizer, never on a ‘ sacred me time’
My so called SSB (not really a secret though) changes depending on my mood. Usually, the things I love to do when alone have nothing to do with secrecy (reading, writing, meditating, chanting and playing my bowls) but maybe yoga is something I prefer to practice behind closed doors. I’m not very flexible so yes, being found in kind of a deranged pretzel is somewhat embarrassing 😉 Funny, I have not so much a problem in class.
And oh yes, playing ‘golden oldies’ or watching old black&white movies (like Andrea 🙂 )
Gives hubby the creeps..lol
I know, it’s crazy how many cleaners there are in this bunch!
All good things, Karin! Haha…Mr. H isn’t into the old movies either.
Love it Britt, sometimes if I am stretched for time because I am sketching and not cleaning, I race around in the last half hour like a maniac before hubs gets home. Spotless house, dinner on the table and a happy hubby. Also a cardiac workout lol.
Oh, that happens to me too! With the little free time I have, I squeeze in the creativity and cleaning whenever I can. But there are some days where I totally focus on cleaning and let my brain rest. And yes, cleaning is a fantastic workout!
Cleaning is never on my list of things I’d choose to do. 😦
My SSB is laying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, and singing.
Haha! I was shocked to hear about all of the cleaners out there. Thought I was the only one who did that…and enjoyed it.
Laying on the floor and singing…awesome! 🙂
Mine is the exact same!
I start a cleaning project and there is no chance of me checking my phone and every chance that I’m also shaking my butt to some kind of music. It just makes you feel so.. productive and calm.
Hey, stranger! It surprised me to see so many crazy cleaners out there like myself. Funny how that works!