My do-nothing weekend uniform.

You know what?  There was a time when I didn’t feel half as guilty for what I did (or didn’t do) this weekend.  (There was also a time where the title “wasted” weekend would have meant…something else.  I am super way too old for that time.)

The plan was to stay in all weekend. We hadn’t been home for a whole weekend since the weekend after Labor Day, with all our weekends broken up by social activities, rehearsals, family events, weddings, holidays, and the lot.  It’s nice to have a great network of people that we are connected to, and I definitely have love for activity-filled days.  But for semi-introverts like me and Ben, we need the occasional weekend off to recharge and regroup on life.

Things I thought I wanted to do this weekend:

• Christmas cards and christmas shopping online.
• Learn a little about mysql/php from a snippet of code my brother sent me that makes our family secret santa draws for us.
• Make personalized holiday gifts for about 5 of my friends.
• Get a few packages ready to be mailed.
• Get invoices sent for a few jobs that finished up in early December.

What I actually got done this weekend:

• At the last minute, my high school choir teacher invited me to come sing holiday carols at Christmas at Fenway, in about 15-degree weather, and about 10 feet away from the World Series trophies.
  

  Christmas at Fenway, imminent snow storm, and Mr. Thomsen says, “come sing!” Get out of my PJs? Yes.

• Much of the Christmas shopping online is actually done—and may not make it here before Christmas.  Curse you Amazon Prime and Zappos…you have spoiled me into thinking that instant gratification is ubiquitous.
• We gathered about 50+ gold bricks in Lego Marvel Superheroes, and unlocked a bunch of characters and vehicles.
  

  This is what I stared at for most of the weekend. It was so bad I had to swap contacts for glasses, but I played through the pain. And played. And played.

I’m trying not to let the “didn’t-do-anything-useful” guilt wash over me and undo the hours of video game therapy I invested in this weekend.  It was a mighty fine weekend.  Especially since Ben is a little snow-obsessed, and thankfully went out about 10 times yesterday to check that things were shoveled and salted and melting—and therefore I didn’t have to.

I’m also trying to find this balance, of not having to feel apologetic to myself or to anyone when I take some time for myself.  Time is also a luxury of the fortunate, and by letting the guilt play a part in defining the weekend, it seems both ungrateful for the blessings that we have and a waste of the gift that I have given to myself.  So no feeling guilty.  I did what I wanted because I could, and because I needed it on some level.

Onward to Monday—without guilt, and with a sense of recharge and go-get’em that I should capitalize on to get me to my next do-nothing weekend! Oh, and this week, I am making a to-do list.