Hey, what's up this weekend, the WhatsApp message from a friend read last night. Its intention was to get my attention and propose a catch up; reading between the lines has become somewhat of a speciality for me and understanding each of my friends' messages as intended is pretty easy.
A few things, nothing too exciting. Coffee Saturday morning? My reply cut straight to the heart of the matter and a message or two later the time and place was set up.
I'm protective of my time, something that comes through being very busy with work and life and needing to do a lot with the hours I'm given each day; this means I make a lot of decisions around where to spend it and with whom because time doesn't come back around. My weekends are very important to me and sometimes I pack a lot in and sometimes not; sometimes they're quite structured and other times very free-floating. Either way, I'm selective with how I spend time and I think we all should be because it's such a precious commodity.
I'm not able to sleep in mostly, the habit of getting up early all week flows over to the weekend so I was up at 05:30h today. I didn't run, but did some calisthenic exercise, played with my cat Cleo, had a shower, a coffee and some yoghurt with granola and by 06:30h was fucken worn out looking towards the rest of the day.
I'll head off to my coffee catch-up at 09:30h and afterwards am going to a Dodge dealership to test drive a new truck. They'll waste some of my time, (fucken car salespeople always do), then I'll come home for lunch (I'm having pumpkin soup which I made a few days ago) and will do some writing on my computer. I have about an hour of tax return preparation to do for my accountant as well, and by mid afternoon I'll be ready for an hour of walking before an afternoon of snacks, coffee and some reading.
I'm making dinner tonight, salmon pasta with chargrilled broccolini, carrots and green beans on the side (some garlic bread too), so I'll prepare for that and then it's off into the evening...parked on the couch with my girl and more episodes of a show called Designated Survivor which I'm watching on Netflix and some evening snacks.
I'll sleep in (hopefully) a little on Sunday and have the day largely to myself although because we both lead very busy lives during the week my partner and I like spending what weekend time we have together where possible so that means I have to go to IKEA with her - she loves the place. I'm not very keen on it because, well IKEA, but we'll be together and will grab lunch somewhere after and a walk too, the Botanic Gardens most probably. After, we'll come home and she'll do gardening and I'll sit in the alfresco area chatting with her and will read a little I guess. By late afternoon Sunday I'll be shifting focus to my working week but will hold it a little at arms length to enjoy dinner, (no idea what she's making but I hope it's Mexican food), and we'll watch a documentary or two and maybe a few episodes of the show I mentioned above. I'll get some stuff ready for Monday and the working week and at midnight...well that's the end of the weekend and I'll be off to bed.
I think by the end of it I'll be able to call it a good weekend and feel I've had value from it. The plan is always to choose what we do rather than get forced through circumstance or a sense of obligation although that happens as well sometimes. Weekends are our time, my time, and as such they need to deploy under my control. I'm always flexible as things change and change can be good but rarely do I allow myself to be forced into something I don't want to do - life and time is too precious for that.
What are you up to this weekend? If you want to tell me about it please do so in the comments below.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Image(s) in this post are my own