It’s been a year now since I reclaimed my weekends (aka, got a new job).
Longtimers might recall I used to work a schedule that differed wildly from T’s. News isn’t a 9-5 gig, and for over a year, we had none of the same days off, except for when I specifically took leave on a weekend.
I had all these grand plans for our newly discovered weekends. And while we’ve done a few of those things, and crossed a couple more off my bucket list, a lot of them were summer-oriented. And we had a SHOCKER of a summer, weatherwise. It was basically a non-summer. I felt a little cheated.
Lately, it’s been even worse. He’s been working all hours, coming home exhausted on Friday and basically recovering by dozing all weekend (that is, the weeks that he wasn’t working right through the weekend…). And in winter it’s hard to muster up the energy or desire to do anything. It rains all the damn time, it’s dark by 5.30, and after a sleep-in, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of daylight. (I’m one of those people whose mood really lives and dies by the weather.)
Nonetheless. I’m generally content with quietly satisfying, relaxing weekends. Movie marathons. Reading on the deck. That kind of thing. Stuff that pales in comparison to the weekend shenanigans of all the vastly cooler people I work with, that makes me kind of dread the question “So what are your weekend plans?”
On that note, I’m taking a drastic step: unsubscribing from Meetup emails. One of my other good intentions was to meet new people and go to Meetups, now that my schedule actually allowed for socialising at normal times. But after a year of those invites clogging up my inbox daily, and my deleting them after barely scanning the subject line, enough is enough. None of the outings appeal, and I don’t really care to spend money on hanging out with strangers (I’m reluctant enough to spend it on hanging out with friends). The idea was to expand my friend circle, I guess, but in reality that’s the last thing I want.That kind of struck home when Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory uttered that classic line: However will I juggle five friendships? And you know, I have enough trouble maintaining my current ones. I don’t care to find more that would place demands on my time. As a kid, I wanted to spend every moment of every day with my friends, but along the way I swung in the opposite direction and became a total lone wolf.
Do you have epic weekends? What’s your idea of the perfect summer weekend? What about a winter one?
My weekends are probably very boring to other people, too. I generally don’t do all that much but I like the downtime. My weeks are always so jam-packed and work is always so stressful that I need those two days to just recuperate before I have to do it all over again. I try to do stuff with friends and enjoy the weather, but I also love just relaxing and taking it easy. Our bodies need it!
I love most weekends; when I was/am in school, my weekend is usually packed with homework, blogging, writing, group meetings, and some mindless activities to get away from it all. But now that I am almost graduated and don’t have as much schoolwork to do, I go for walks in the park with the boy and the dog, and am very productive.
Do you live in the Northwest? I used to live in Seattle and felt cheated when the weather wasn’t nice in the summer. My perfect weekend would be a lot of beach volleyball, followed by dinner/drinks with friends, and a movie. Pretty low key stuff.
I live in Auckland, New Zealand (hence the blog name! And the winter!)
I used to spend my weekends doing schoolwork… @_@
Now that I’m free… I don’t know. It’s so… odd. Usually though, I like to make any big plans for Saturday and leave my Sunday free to stay at home, rest & recoup as well.
LOL, I don’t usually watch The Big Bang Theory but I totally agree! I feel like I am lucky if I see some of my key friends once a month, which is pretty sad, if you think about it. I am glad to hear I am not the only person who feels this way. 🙂
My weekends typically consist of me going out with my friends on Friday nights (girls’ nights) and Saturday is spent recuperating, and all the other times with the boy. We have exact opposite schedules as well (he goes into work around an hour before I get home), but we do get the weekends together which is nice.
I’m with you – low key weekends are the best. A typical summer weekend for me is: movie or bonfire Friday night, cleaning Saturday morning, hang out with friends Saturday evening, and relax with a book Sunday. Winter weekends usually involve more movies/indoor activities and maybe some curling.
I also hate that “what are you doing this weekend?” question, because usually I”m not doing anything that sounds very exciting. I like to sleep in, catch up on blogging, read, watch movies/TV, and we usually do things like grocery shopping and laundry on the weekend. I usually work a little too. But it’s still a nice change of pace from the busy weekdays. Now that we have a dog, we do get out to greyhound events or the dog park now and then, which is fun.
My ideal weekends involve running, yoga, and maybe one outdoor active thing like paddleboarding (last weekend), kayaking, surfing, or whatever…. But not EVERY weekend, just mix it in.
Also, maybe a patio happy hour in the neighborhood with friends and husband… Low key for sure!