No Plan Weekend

It's a holiday weekend and I didn't have to work.  We didn't make any plans for the weekend because every weekend you have off you don't need to do anything.  Plus there was plenty of sports going on.  The Tigers are currently playing the Twins and I've been able to see each game of the series.  It's nice to be able to see them, but the down side is having to listen to the Twins announcers.  We watched some of the Red Wings game last night, got depressed because they didn't bother showing up and chose to watch a movie (Skyfall) instead.

The past couple of weekends I have had off, we made it a point to get out of the house and do at least something on either Saturday or Sunday.  Nothing major, just did some stuff to get out.  We found a couple of parks to go walk around and get some fresh air.  Even during the winter, we found ourselves wanting and needing to get out.  The weather was pretty cold for about four and a half months so 'getting out' just meant getting in the car and driving around.  Seeing something different. 

However, there are weekends when we don't really want to do anything.  This was one of those weekends.  We have a vacation coming up in a few weeks, so why not have a low key weekend?  As long as these weekends don't happen every single time I don't work, I'm just fine.  Sitting around two weekends off in a row feels like at least one of those weekends is wasted.  The next weekend I have off we'll be home and more than likely will be doing some sort of activity.  So why put all your energy into this weekend? 

After a weekend of doing nothing, I always feel really relaxed once I go back to work on Monday.  I usually get about eight to nine hours of sleep a night to make up for the week prior when I usually average about six.  The fun thing about going back to work is that I get the usual 'do anything this weekend?' questions.  When I happily say no, I get some weird looks.  Not everyone understands the point of a lazy weekend.  But I sure as hell do. 

How Best to Spend Your Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday.  Thirty one years old.  Not exactly a milestone year.  The next big one is THE big one.  Forty.  Not as scary as it once was when I was about ten years old.  I'm past the big celebrations for birthdays.  For me anyways.  If my wife wants a huge party or I go to a party for a friend, that's fine by me.  I just don't want all the hoopla, not my style. 

What was on the docket was absolutely nothing.  We didn't make any plans, we didn't think about going out, we didn't do much of anything.  We watched a movie in the afternoon.  And it was all that I could have asked for.  The big plan was dinner.  My wife made pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, corn, and french fries.  A mid summer's day meal in the midst of winter.  It.  Was.  Awesome!  Followed up by the one tradition I will always hold dear to my heart:  chocolate chip cheesecake.  The best birthday dessert of all time.  A dessert Kayne West would interrupt for if another dessert would win 'best birthday dessert of the year' award. 

This kind of birthday isn't for everyone.  Some people want to have a big party every year, others want to just go out and have drinks.  Or maybe going out for a nice dinner at a restaurant you wouldn't go to any other day of the year.  I think that having these low key birthdays are great for me because I'm not always one that wants to be in the spotlight.  I don't like being the center of attention.  I enjoy going to parties, just as long as it isn't about me.  Unless I do something great like coming up with a plan to end the zombie war.  Then maybe I would like to have a party thrown for me. 

Elk City

After careful consideration, Elk City is where I'll be spending my next weekend off. The main thing I was looking for was a place that was somewhat close to Wichita (although I don't mind taking a long car ride), had primitive camping (who needs a camper when you have a tent), and possible hiking trail. Elk City has all of it. The hiking trail is the real draw. It isn't anything major, just under three miles and it runs right next to the lake making it somewhat close to nature.

There are really two types of camping. Camping with friends, and camping alone. Being with friends is great, it allows for relaxation and socializing. It can bring people closer together just because it's out in the middle of nowhere, you have to get back to basics (such as cooking over a fire), and you all deal with being away from the comforts of home. No air conditioning, no television, no bed. Just each other. Playing cards or reading books or sitting around a fire and drinking beer.

The other option is to go camping by yourself. It may sound awful and boring, but on the other hand it can be more relaxing than camping with friends. There is no better way to clear one's head then to get away from the city and get out to nature. It sounds cliched and it is, but it is true. Whenever I get back from camping there is just this sense of clarity.

But then again, camping by yourself usually leads to alien abductions....if you believe in that sort of thing.

A day of mind numbing sports.

My one and only goal that I set yesterday was to enjoy my day off. Not just enjoy, but relax and do absolutely nothing. Mission complete. And what helped me get through the day? Sports. Watching sports for practically the entire day eats away the hours but leaves one feeling numb.

My first objective was getting up early. There are two things very strange about that. One....my day off. Who wants to get up early on their day off? and two...I was up until one in the morning sharing some drinks with some friends. But, I needed to get up before eight thirty in order to watch the US soccer team play. It was an intense game and they were robbed, once again, of a goal by a bogus call. Such is life, there was plenty of time left in the game after the off sides call. Then the minutes ticked away and still no score until additional play. It was the most excited I ever really get about a sport I don't follow all that much.

By the time the soccer game was over, there were stories all around about this insanely long tennis match that was happening at Wimbledon. This match, being played by two almost anonymous men has lasted three days (or will once they resume play tomorrow). They are tied at fifty nine in the fifth set. Normally, the sets go to seven or eight depending on how well the opponents are, but fifty nine a piece! That is crazy. It is the longest match in the modern era, the American that is playing in it set a new record for most aces in one match, and it has been suspended twice because of darkness. The play time is a little over ten hours. TEN HOURS!

The final sport was the Tigers v. Mets. The Tigers lost. Moving on.......

I feel as though I should get some shares in ESPN stock. All three sporting events I watched today were on either ESPN or ESPN2. In between the tennis match and the baseball game, I squeezed in the Germany/Ghana game (or bits and pieces of it) and lunch and dinner.

My brain is mush, I work in the morning, but before I go to bed, I have decided to solidify my mind for a little bit and pick up a book. You know, so my intellectual self doesn't die.

For my consideration

After very little thought as to what to do with my weekend of in July while Andrea is out of town, I determined to go camping. I gave serious thought about heading up to Kansas City and going to a couple of Royals games, but that costs way more money than I want to spend. I also considered going to Fort Scott and visit the historical site, but couldn't find much else to do in the area that would really warrant a long weekend trip.

With camping, getting there is the hard part and after it is all about relaxing. The one thing that camping trumps over the other options is money. Buying food and fuel for the fire to cook the food I believe cancels out the cost of eating out at restaurants were I to go to KC or Fort Scott. Outside of the amount of money it costs to get there (gasoline, mostly) it will cost around twenty to thirty dollars for the weekend. Not bad for staying in a state park. Speaking of which, I have two in mind and it is really up in the air as to which one I am going to go to. Either Elk City or Fall River. Both are quite close to Wichita, within two hours drive. Both offer some decent looking day hiking trails which I am really looking forward to investigating. The trails are anywhere from one to three miles so nothing too strenuous. After finding a few reviews on the camp sites and the trails, I am excited to go. The reviews were great, and they should be. They are for state parks. It's not like they are privately owned and unkempt.

Is it July yet?

Weekend sloth

My two week overnight stint working on a project at work came to an end Friday morning leaving me with a three day weekend. My first thoughts were about lying by the pool for a day, but that was canceled because of rain for the weekend. Not just one day, but both days (although the clouds may break in the afternoon today). So that plan was out. My second plan was to just hang out and do nothing. SUCCESS!

Friday all day I was a zombie. I only slept for a couple of hours after coming home because I wanted (needed) to get back on a normal sleep pattern before Monday. I did grab a nap in the early evening, but that didn't really affect my sleep that night.

I woke up at six thirty Saturday morning. Why? I don't know. I kept in the back of my mind the whole sleep pattern thing. So I got up, made some coffee, and watched a movie. And then another one. I even watched a World Cup match which led to the previous entry. Once again, took another early evening nap which lasted about two and a half hours. Quite a nap! Andrea was on the verge of waking me up so I could sleep through the night.

I woke up today around seven o'clock. And here I sit. Made another pot of coffee and am currently watching another World Cup match (or Copa Mundial because it's on Telemundo!) If I have no real interest in what the commentators are saying, why not watch it in Spanish?

I was worried about not being able to sleep at night after this, but it hasn't been much of a problem. I felt nothing but tired the entire two weeks of this project. I would get eight or nine hours of sleep during the day and wake up at three in the afternoon only to want to move to the couch and continue to sleep. Naps were essential every single day. It felt wrong to be napping until seven or eight at night, but if the day begins at ten thirty in the evening, why not sleep the day away? I just hated only being awake for a couple of hours during the day. I did nothing, and normally that feels wonderful, but not this time.

Real quick fast

I have this weekend coming up off from work.  It is nothing new, it happens every other weekend.  The big difference between this weekend and others is that I will be home by myself.  Andrea is going up to KC for a baby shower, which begs the question.....What to do? 

I have contemplated just hanging out around the house.  I have thought about finding some place to go outside of Wichita.  Nothing has come to mind quite yet, and I'm looking.  Just not that hard. 

The 8-4-8

When we found out that our families were coming down for roughly three weeks this month, I did my best to take some time off of work to be with them. A recurring theme when writing about family is the fact that we live so far away and don't see them very often. So when we go home or they come down here, I try to take some time off just to visit.

One problem that can come up is vacation time. Whether it is not having enough or at a time during the year when work is so busy and hectic that I can't take the time off. When it is too busy to take vacation time, in rolls ingenuity. And in rolls a two week schedule that makes me wonder about my sanity from time to time. It is what I refer to as the 8-4-8. Work eight days straight, take four days off, work another eight days straight. Crazy right? Yes. I have good reasoning for doing this. It takes up no vacation time! Instead of taking sixteen or twenty four hours of vacation, I use none. One question that people ask is usually, Is that legal? The way it balances out on the work schedule is that the first three days of the eight day stretch starts out on one work and then rolls over to the next week for the next five days. So there is no crazy overtime (the pay would be nice) and both weeks involved include two days off. The second part of this stretch is a mirror image of the first.

I have done this a few times in the past two years and it works out great. There is always something to do at work so the time just flies through the week. When the four day vacation stretch comes, it is insanely relaxing. Later on this year when we want to take a seven to ten day trip somewhere, having that extra vacation time banked will come in really handy. It is all about looking ahead and planning.

Weekend!

It is the weekend. This is the last full weekend I will have off until after the new year. It sounds a lot worse than it actually is. I will have one day of the weekend off, but still will not have two days off in a row.

We had plans to go to Columbia, MO to watch my brother in law play bike polo (look it up) but things kind of fell apart when Andrea woke up not feeling well. If it were closer we could try to make it, but it's about five hours away and not really worth it being this late in the morning. Our apologies Adam, I'm sure you are heartbroken.

It would have been nice to get out of Wichita for a few days, but it is also nice to just hang out at home. I have thoughts of doing the dishes and watching football for the next two days. Ambitious right?

Weekend ahead

This weekend coming up is much needed. I have the day off tomorrow, and the weekend off as well. I can't wait. My six day stretches at work go by quickly, but these weekends are a great relief.

The only problem is that we don't have any plans for the weekend. It is nice enough to go do stuff outside. I want to go out and enjoy the weather before the 'winter' comes and gets too cold and rainy. As great as it is to relax all weekend, I do get bored with it. I need to get out and do stuff, even if it is just getting out and driving around town for a little bit.




This could be an optimal time to try out a new frisbee golf course.

The weekend

I had this past weekend off. I did nothing, and it was great. It was everything I hoped it would be. I now see why some people don't get jobs. The weather was very fall-like, overcast and a little rainy.

Saturday we sat around the apartment and did some cleaning (and by some I mean very very little). The only thing I planned was watching the Michigan football game. Although they ended up losing the game, it was an excellent one.

Sunday was another lazy morning. I went frisbee golfing with Marc and Jason. Even though we all threw horribly, it was a lot of fun. It was cool enough to wear long sleeves and hats but not cold enough to really bundle up. Afterwards, we all went out for dinner and a couple of beers.

That was the weekend. It was one of the first weekends when nothing was planned that went by quickly. If I don't set things up for the weekend, the days seem to drag and I end up looking forward to going back to work on Monday (weird, right?). Even though the past two days were enjoyable, I think one more day off would have capped off a relaxing weekend.

Tis Fall

The weather is starting to turn. It is great. Fall has shown up in Kansas, it is in the forties in the morning when I go to work and it has been raining a little bit. There was no gradual decline in temperature this year. It just kind of happened. It all of a sudden went from being in the eighties to the low to mid sixties. I am very very okay with this. I hate the hot weather. I suppose I just enjoy being bundled up in a big heavy jacket with gloves and a hat on. It hasn't gotten that cold yet, but when it does, I do enjoy it.

One nice thing about the fall is it is that we can go out and play frisbee golf and not have to worry about dying from the heat. We would go out sporadically in June or July only in the hopes of there being some wind to cool us down. The only problem is that the wind felt like it came out of a hair dryer. Now, not so much. It is jeans and sweatshirt weather baby! Comfortable weather to walk around a field and amongst the trees.

Productive day off

Despite making no plans for my days off, I still filled the hours of the weekend. Saturday was meant for work around the apartment. The dishes were done, as was cleaning of the kitchen floor. I also spent three plus hours watching football. Michigan football has come back to life and now sit at four wins and zero losses.

That was the day. I also went out and grabbed a few groceries. It doesn't sound like much, but before I knew it, it was seven o'clock at night. I watched the Tigers come back and win against the White Sox.

Then? Then it was off to a bar with a few friends who I haven't hung out with in quite some time. It was relaxing, despite the fact that there was tons of horrible karaoke being sung. Bad country, bad semi-classic rock, and the like.

The plans for Sunday are as follows: Take the recycling out, go out and watch some football and drink some beer. That is it.

Sleep catch up and frolfing

One great thing about working Tuesday night is not having to work the next day. I have also been going out for a couple of hours with some work friends and grabbing a few cheap beers at a local establishment. So by the time I get home it is close to one in the morning. Sounds late, but it is only two hours after we get done with work. Normally on Tuesday night going into Wednesday I get about six or seven hours of sleep, but not last night. I got ten (TEN!) hours of sleep. I woke up at eleven this morning. It was wonderful.

The only thing I did today was go frisbee golfing. Something fun and relaxing. It doesn't take a lot of skill, but it takes concentration from time to time. It is difficult to make the disc go in a straight line and go about two hundred feet every throw. That is the fun in it as well, trying to get better at it. I have just recently started throwing in a forehand motion (the same motion in the picture I took of Marc earlier this year at the Colwich golf course). It may not make sense to people who don't play the game, but there is a big difference in the game. My wrist will definitely be sour as opposed to my shoulder. It is nice to get outside and just hang out with a few friends for an hour or so and have a purpose to throwing a frisbee.

Busy weekends

There has been much traveling on my weekends off. It has been nice to do stuff, but it also takes away the lazy part of not having to work for two days. This weekend we drove up to Topeka to par(rrrrrrr)take in the second annual Pirate Party. A good time was had by everyone there and it is fun to do something different like that. The previous weekend off was the float trip. Once again, it was a lot of fun, but there was plenty of driving to get there. Two weeks before that was my trip to Wilson's Creek.

So the weekends I am not working have been filled with plenty of travel and plenty of friends, but I find that come Monday morning, I am dragging ass. So, come hell or high water, I am planning to do nothing two weekends from now. I want to sit around and watch a bunch of football, maybe drink some beer, and be sloth-like. There may also be some movie watching in the line up as well.

One weekend of this would be enough. I'm sure that come Sunday evening, I will complain about not doing anything all weekend. I will have to come back to this post and remind myself that this is the plan.

Trip approaching

Our vacation home is coming up quickly. We fly out eight days from today. It will be very nice to get home. The trip I had in June just was not long enough. You can only cram so much into four days.

One thing that I really want to do while we are home is fish. I did not take advantage of the oppertunities to go fishing while I was living in Michigan. We did fish a lot, but it just seems like there were many times when we didn't go out but could have. Or maybe it just seems that way because I have only been fishing once in the past year.

Fishing isn't always about getting the fish. Sometimes it is just about getting out in the lake and just relaxing. Just having a great time. The middle of the lake is just about the most relaxing places I have ever been. I think that it is just the quite with no one else around. No phones, music, sounds of the city. Just silence, or the occasional bird song. And that is okay too. Unless it is foggy and a loon calls out. That is just chilling.

Weekend off

I have the weekend off.  The first weekend I have had off since the last weekend of March.  Technically, I had easter sunday off, but it was not a real day off because of all the stuff we did.  So yeah, three weeks in a row I was at work during the busiest times.  I'm not really complaining because it wasn't all that bad, but still.  

We are heading up to Topeka Saturday to attend an art auction called Concealed Revealed which was started in 2004.  It is an effort to stop violence against women that was started by students who attended Washburn University, so it is for a great great cause.  

And then on Sunday, we are moving eastward to Kansas City to partake in the great american past time.   BASEBALL!  The Tigers are playing the Royals this weekend as they wrap up a road trip.  They will only be playing in KC this weekend and then once more during the week in May.  The weather is still up in the air.  There is a chance of rain Sunday afternoon, but I am hoping that it will blow over by game time.  

What to do at concerts

I was listening to The Young Turks the other week and they were talking about concerts because of some Michael Jackson clip, in which a grown man was jumping and screaming over him, they had on.  The host, Cenk Uygur, mentioned that he doesn't know how to act at concerts.  It was kind of random.  The other people on the show were giving him a hard time because he is music illiterate (a self imposed title).  

I suppose it depends on the concert venue.  I have not been to many concerts in my day, but I have been to the ones where everyone is sitting down and others where everyone is standing up.  There is also pain in both settings.  Sitting down for a two hour concert, especially in uncomfortable seats, can take your mind away from the music while you adjust yourself when your back hurts.  And then there is standing for two hours.  Very painful on the legs.

When in doubt, be a follower.  Don't be the first one to stand up and get on your chair.  Wait for someone else to do it, and if a bottle comes flying at them from behind, keep your ass in your seat and enjoy the show.  

Vacation plans for the future (insert John Williams music for effect)

Have You Ever by Incubus rocks the speakers.

Sifting through friends' trip pictures off of facebook really makes me want to take a vacation trip to some place not normal.  We have plans to go see Chuck up in Seattle in November (very excited, never been to Washington [state]).  I think I'll bring some explosives for some starbucks.  Thin them out a bit.  

We also have plans to go back home in February to see the new addition to the family (going to be born in October).  Those are the vacation plans for us so far.  But I want to take a trip for a week or so and visit some random state and just relax and take it all in.  Maybe take a trip to New York and piss on Yankee Stadium or to Boston and curse them for putting seats on the Green Monster (Biggest. Baseball. Mistake. EVER.)  Who ruins an iconic part of a stadium like that?  

Assholes.  

sleepless

Listening to Down by 311

I've been up way too long.  It's been close to thirty two hours.  I went and did inventory last night and it went well (for once, it seems).  The one bad thing about inventory is that I leave and have to turn around and come back in eight hours later.  That doesn't sound that bad, but it is just draining.  There isn't a whole lot of sleep in between leaving and coming back.  So I asked my boss if I could just stay for a double shift.  After a little bit of debating internally in her head, she agreed to it.  It was just about the best thing.  I got a shit ton of stuff done that normally wouldn't have been done.  It is amazing how much can get done when no one bugs you.  

So I was just exhausted while I was working.  My only thought was that I couldn't wait to get back to the apartment and sleep.  But I just wanted a nap, not a long sleep on the bed.  But I laid down on the couch and couldn't fall asleep.  And that is never an issue when I come home after a normal day.  It is odd.  So I can't wait until tonight so I can get some sleep back.