With coming weekends poised to be consumed by the new concert season my spouse extracted a simple promise -- once the summer season was over weekends belonged to us to be shared with family and friends.
So all my work doesn't get finished, weeknight work runs into the early a.m. on a regular basis... but the weekends are non-negotiable. It's not a selfish demand. I don't have to spend the time with him, just so long as I'm not working.
Friday night I went to a play with friends I met through work, but the evening was anything but work. Walking to dinner, a play and then inviting the group back to our apartment for wine was the big vision when we took the downtown loft. I hadn't left myself any time to do such things... turns out they are as much fun as I expected.
Saturday morning was chaos getting ready for my mother's birthday party here -- the first time that she or her siblings would see our place.
The party was fun. Guests from 5 to 70+ raved about Charli'e spaghetti sauce and Dad appreciated the pineappleupsidedown cupcakes I made just for him.
We packed up the leftovers at about 10 p.m. , grabbed a few things and headed out to the cottage, top down, singing along with the radio as Route 5 traced the Lake Erie shoreline to our destination.
We settled in the big chairs on the porch with a bottle of champagne, the smoke from Charlie's cigar floating on the cool breeze, the creek completely still.
The ducks, geese and seagulls had a feast the next morning on the leftover bread we brought from Mom's party, a last hurrah with our summer friends before migration.
We got back to the city in time to see the Bills win their first game, enjoy a leftover feast, do a little scrapbooking and puncuate everything with naps.
Yes, the business emails did pile up in my neglect. And there is again too much to do.
It feels pretty lousy to be facing Monday morning right now.
But it felt a lot better to not face it on Saturday and Sunday.



Copyright 2005 Judi Griggs