The weekend is never long enough, right? On the Thanksgiving long
weekend, my wife had a medical conference in Jasper, so we all stayed at the
Jasper Park Lodge. That doesn’t happen often, so we enjoy that opportunity
whenever it arises. But it still wasn’t long enough. Here’s a look at my past
weekend:
Friday
I come home from work, and pick up my kids from daycare. Everyone’s
excited: my wife and I are going out for dinner, just the two of us. My
daughters are happy to have their Oma and Opa come and babysit them.
My wife and I go out to dinner at least once a year, for our
anniversary. And, usually, that’s it. Yup. Once a year. So for us to do this is
definitely out of the ordinary. But I recently had my contract extended for
another year, and that’s as good a reason as any to go out to dinner. Destination: Violino.
We’re at the restaurant 15 minutes late, but it’s still pretty early
and it’s not busy yet. Our food comes fast--really fast: 10 minutes. (Waiter:
“It’s pasta. How long does that take?”) We linger over dinner, but it’s still
early. If we return home now, the kids will wail at us for coming home too
soon. What to do? Eh, let’s hit the mall. (Listen, if you have kids, this is
considered an indulgence, okay?)
After the kids are in bed, my wife and I watch part of a movie. We’re
tired, and it’s getting late, so we only manage to watch the middle third of Her. Yeah, it takes us several days to
watch a movie. It feels like such an indulgence. See above, re: kids.
Saturday
I get to sleep in, which means about 9:30 (yay!). By that time, the
noise level in the house is enough to wake up any sleepyheads. I make a cup of
go-juice, which helps my eyelids to open, and I grab the newspaper. A funny
thing happens, which is: nothing. Nobody’s hollering for me because somebody
hit somebody else, or they need this lid off of that jar, or...anything. So I
keep my head down and keep reading the newspaper until I’m finished it.
That never happens. I mean, never. I’ve never read the whole weekend newspaper
in one day before--much less in one morning. Typically, it’s still sitting
there unread on Monday morning. Feeling somewhat guilty, I check and answer my
email for the first of a half-dozen or so times, and then start work on my
consulting project.
I’ve got a hard deadline coming up, and I’ve barely started my work.
It’s consulting; nothing to do with the university at all. So that means I
can’t use my university computer, electricity, or Internet--I’ve got to do it
all at home. But home is where the family is, and that means interruptions and
noise. Taking advantage of the blanket of calm that has mysteriously descended,
I dive into my work until it’s time to come up for lunch.
Naturally, everyone in the family wants something different for lunch.
Sigh. The kitchen is now open!
After lunch, my eldest daughter has a friend’s birthday party to go
to. The first part of the party is at the friend’s house, but then it moves to
a local hall for a Halloween party. In the middle, I have to chauffeur my
daughter to her soccer game on the opposite side of town. So I drive her back and
forth across the city, grabbing dinner at a drive-thru on the way. (At least the
Whiplash won their game, and my daughter scored a goal. Yeah!)
After the hall party ends, it’s time for bed. My wife and I watch the
last third of Her. (It’s original,
but in the end, I felt like I had just spent the whole time looking at Joaquin
Phoenix’s face while listening to a radio play.)
Sunday
Another day, another birthday party in the afternoon, so I should have
some more quiet time then. My wife’s at brunch with a friend when I get a
call--would my girls like to come over for a playdate? Um, sure. I walk them
over to the playdate, and then it’s back to work for me. In the silent, empty
house I finish my consulting project. And then I start updating my lecture
notes. There’s an exam coming up, which means I’ve got to post the next set of
notes online. First, however, I’ve got to make a couple of dozen changes--updating,
correcting, clarifying things. Oops, nope--first, it’s another round of email.
I’m halfway done, when the peace and quiet disappears. My wife’s back,
and so are the kids, who now want lunch. Then it’s off to the birthday party
for my youngest daughter. I do a bit of work here and there, in between doing
loads of laundry. I’m feeling pretty good about everything I’ve gotten done and
decide to reward myself. Kaffeezeit!
As I’m making my coffee, I look out the window and am momentarily puzzled by
the fact that I can’t see past the end of the yard--there’s all this white
stuff in the air. No, it’s actually falling. Snow!? Sigh. That must mean
Halloween is coming soon. Looks like everyone will have to bundle up again this
year.
It’s time to start making dinner, then lunches for school, bath time
for my daughters (made much more enjoyable by the presence of foam soap), then
it’s time for bed. But...but...there was so much more I wanted to do!
No, the weekend is never long enough. Need more evidence? I’m writing
this on Monday morning.
Why aren’t you studying?
