Last week was rough. But the upcoming weekend was a bright spot on the horizon. Kevin was planning to go to the beach with some coworkers, which meant I'd have the house all to myself. I decided to make the most of my weekend of freedom and treat myself, a la Tom and Donna in Parks and Rec.
On Friday I made a big pan of risotto (quickly becoming my new comfort food, plus I can throw in a bunch of spinach and pretend it's healthy) and caught up on all the shows that I hadn't been able to watch the previous weekend when we had company.
The plan for Saturday was to go tubing for Jen's birthday in the morning, then head to Tyson's for a shopping spree and finally make a spicy pasta for dinner that I wasn't sure Kevin would like. But plans must be malleable. And though the day didn't go entirely according to plan, it was still fun and relaxing and ultimately a very good day.
Because I live way out in the suburbs, I managed to avoid the carpool, which meant I was able to drive myself. Most people will tell you that I'm an anxious or bad driver, and that's because I tend to be when there are other people in the car. I get lost, I get distracted by conversations, it's just not great. But by myself on small mountain roads with a proper buffer built in? That's my happy place. I scheduled an extra half hour to get to the tubing place, got lost several times, cranked my music up loud, and generally enjoyed the scenery. As expected, I got lost more than once. But I had time to get lost, so it wasn't a big deal.
Of course it's difficult to wrangle a large group of people, so tubing itself got a little delayed. I'd been expecting to be done by 12:30, 1 at the latest. But we didn't get on the river until after noon. Such is life. The float down was a lot of fun. Tubing is a great social activity for introverts, because there's a good mix of socializing and hanging out by yourself on the river. I did get dunked once, which wasn't fun, but it was mostly a nice, relaxing way to spend a few hours.
I think the rest of the group went down the river again, but I decided to leave once we got back to shore. Another perk of skipping out on the carpool: I wasn't beholden to anyone else.
I took the highway back and made it to the mall just before 5. At this point my contact was seriously bugging me (it got ruined when I went under the river) and I had a slight headache from dehydration. So I slashed shopping list and just picked up a bath bomb from Lush. Then I decided to eat out instead of cooking and enjoyed some excellent gorgonzola encrusted beef medallions.
After dinner I was feeling good enough to wander through the bookstore (though I'm rarely not feeling good enough for that), and I picked up a bunch of books. Now my to-read stack is a little unwieldy again, but these were mostly shorter books rather than the long epics I stocked up on at the beginning of summer. I should go through them a bit quicker.
I fit in my long-anticipated bath when I got home, complete with a glass of wine and a book. But the tubing earlier had left me so exhausted that I fell asleep shortly after 9. The next morning I went out in search of new slippers and gym shoes, then curled up on the couch with a book for most of the rest of the day. Kevin got home earlier than I expected, and I subjected him to the spicy pasta I'd been looking forward to. He enjoyed it, though I imagine that I'll be eating most of the leftovers.
It was so nice to have a weekend all to myself, and I really felt relaxed and rejuvenated at the end of it. But then I woke up Monday morning and checked the news and all that stress and sadness came rushing right back. At least I managed a couple of days of peace.
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