It is Saturday morning, just after 6:30 in the morning. By all rights, I should be asleep and in bed. My girlfriend already asked if I was crazy, and I couldn't give her a better answer than "Yup."
But I couldn't sleep anymore. How many times can you roll over on a sore back, hoping to get back to sleep magically, somehow, when you just kind of know that it's over for that- at least for now. Oh, I could try and go back to bed, something that I was pretty tempted to do, actually. But sleep is likely over, unless there is a cat nap or so in no sooner than an hour or two. Funny how that works once you get older, isn't it?
This is an exciting day for us, as I took a day off from my weekend job, giving us the whole day, afternoon, and well into the evening (I work two jobs on the weekends, my full-time job, and my part-time job, and so planning anything like a trip or some kind of event requires a bit of effort sometimes). The request for a day off was made in advance so that we could go to FarmAid, out in Hershey, Pennsylvania. I have been to one of those concerts before - a couple of years ago, actually. It was on my birthday, with another girlfriend at the time, and out in Milwaukee.
I will give a small concert preview for Farm Aid 2012, coupled with a brief concert review of the 2010 show, in another post, later today, on another post. But for now, let me return to this morning.
It is a bit chilly right now, and there is a bit of a chill coming from the open window in the bedroom. I love this time of the year for precisely that reason. It is nice and warm, sometimes even still hot, during the days. But the nights bring with them a chill, a definite reminder that the cooler autumn temperatures are well on their way, if not already here (they feel like they are already here now, this year, based on some cool temperatures over the last few weeks). Soon, the days will be mild to cool, and the nights will be cold. Those are still enjoyable, as well. Mornings when you can see frost on the ground, but afternoons when you can take your jacket or sweater off. Love that!
I mentioned earlier that it takes a bit of doing in order to be free to do something fun on these weekends of mine. Last weekend, my son and I went to the Giants-Bucs football game on Sunday afternoon, and that meant not so much a day off from my job, as a couple of hours off instead. This weekend, my girlfriend and I are going to see an all-day concert, so I obviously had to take the entire day off. It just seemed like it would definitely be worth it.
My weekends are quite busy, and even exhausting. I mentioned some time ago that the last couple of months, or so, have been a particularly stressful time in my life, and I never feel it as much as just after such a marathon weekend. Once Monday morning comes, the exhaustion can be overwhelming, and often times, as I drive homeward bound from work on Monday mornings, I am so exhausted, that I need to pull over and catch a bit of shuteye. This is especially true when traffic tends to be particularly heavy and annoying. Sometimes, it's all I can do to keep myself from falling asleep at the wheel, which would be horrible!
So that means that, while most other people look forward to their weekends, I sometimes approach them with a sense of dread (but not always). That has been true of the last few weekends, particularly since the trip that I took with my son in late August, until last weekend, which was a bit more relaxing, but was perhaps even more exhausting for the effort it took to get to the game, and the sleep that I lost on account of that. You see, usually, other people will ask each other if they have anything special or cool lined up for the weekend, and they sometimes go into detail about it. But when I'm asked, usually the answer is "work". It sounds, and feels, pretty lame. Yet, I do feel blessed to work my weekend job, which I have been on now for almost a decade (can't believe I can actually say that!). It is a relaxing job, for the most part, for which I feel blessed. Not sure I could do it if it wasn't.
As busy as my weekends tend to be, they were worse - far worse - until only recently. I work a lot of hours now, but there have been changes to my schedule recently, in the last year or so. Last November, they essentially cut our hours from twelve hour shifts to eight hour shifts. It was a significant difference in pay, and took some adjusting (still does, truth be told). However, whatever adjustments I had to make in terms of pay, I also made in terms of schedule. More sleep, and more free time, which took advantage of to go hiking, to just relax and chill, sometimes, like last weekend), to go out with a friend or family member and do something with. I can enjoy mornings in with my girlfriend, and we often have a bit of time to do something in the day with, as well. That's a marked improvement, admittedly. I used to work from Friday, midnights, until Mondays at 8am, with all of 8 total hours off in between. That was a brutal, even near murderous, schedule. Sometimes, it surprises me that I lasted years doing it.
But as stated earlier, that all started to change last November, when some major problems at my weekend job led to them making draconian changes. The weekend crew (all of us) lost many hours, but for me, maybe it was more advantageous than for others. First of all, a few people lost their jobs outright, and I was blessed to hang on there. Also, the lesser hours meant more hours to try and catch up on sleep, or otherwise, make use of the time as I saw fit. So, that was one change that came out of it, and I took advantage of it.
Then, around the spring of this year came another change, right around the time met my girlfriend and I met. My full-time job asked us to choose our days, if you will, for a more permanent schedule. Our schedules used to shift, to change weekly. It was annoying, and no one liked it. But we got to pick the days (or in my case, nights) off that we wanted. I picked Tuesday nights/Wednesday mornings, and Friday nights/Saturday mornings.
Some people looked at me weird, and asked why I had not taken off for consecutive days. But I wanted something to break up the monotony of five consecutive nights, and could not do it by taking consecutive nights off. So, I split them. Tuesday nights just seemed right, because Tuesdays tend to be my afternoons off, to begin with. You see, I have a son I need to watch on afternoons and evenings, but on tuesdays, traditionally, that has not been the case for some years. So, I got to looking forward to Tuesdays.
Friday night was a natural pick. It's one of the "fun" nights, along with Saturday nights. I can go out and do things, do stuff. Pretend like I have a weekend, and all of that. Plus, it allows me to enjoy my Saturday mornings.
Of course, I remember when Saturday mornings used to be filled with a lot more fun when a kid. It used to mean freedom from school, and Saturday morning cartoons. Saturdays were like miniature summer vacations, and thank goodness for that!
Man, Saturday mornings were fun, and used to feel like such a blessing! Improvements have been made in terms of my schedule, and I will certainly admit that they were improvements, making a tough weekend schedule infinitely more manageable and pleasant. But no matter what happens on my weekends, it is doubtful that they will ever top those childhood Saturday mornings filled with energy and cartoons and so much free time, that you never knew what to do with them. They were best when my father would make us pancakes, which were really out of this world!
Where have the good times gone? I prefer the Saturday mornings when my girlfriend and I have off and can enjoy them together much more than those weekends that I just had to get through, which stopped really only recently, after years. But what I would do to relive those magical days of childhood Saturday mornings! The best I can do, perhaps, is to do all that I can to make sure my son now gets to enjoy them, right? It's his turn to experience the magical Saturday mornings...
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