weekend plans: ho hum & so yum

The big question at the office on Fridays, especially on the Friday before a three-day weekend, is "Any big plans this weekend?"  The receptionist in our office is generally the one who asks, of pretty much everyone who crosses his path that day.  I always wish I didn't have the TGIF going so strong, but I do, so I'm always a little giddy on Fridays, eager for the break -- when I actually get one -- and delighted to hear the question asked and answered, vicariously enjoying other people's weekend activities, especially when they're very different from my own.

The truth is that this weekend, the one I'm sitting in right now, feels like it's the first "normal" one in some time.  First Joe was gone for a weekend, then we were both gone the following weekend, then the weekend after that I worked on Sunday, and here it is NOW, this weekend, and we're both here and I don't have to work.  And it's three days long.  From the standpoint of this Saturday morning, the time is unrolled out in front of me, mostly empty, fat with potential.

Joe will be racing tomorrow, his first race of this season, his first race since that catastrophic crash last March which broke 4 ribs, the right clavicle and scapula and punctured his lung. And put a hole in his confidence on the bike.  The driver's insurance company can compensate him for the destroyed frame, the medical bills, the time off work, the pain and suffering, but that hole in his confidence -- that's a tricky thing.  So I'm so, so glad he's out there, so strong right now, ready to engage in the race with his teammates, do well, have fun, feel good.  

Me?  When I was asked yesterday if I had any Big Plans for the weekend, I think I said something like No plans.  Nothing.  Just staying home and I'm so glad.  But I realize now, now that I'm sitting here with my coffee, puppy at my feet, that I was being coy, perhaps, not speaking up about what's really on my list.  Since really, when people are answering things like "going to the movies," "going surfing," "having a romantic dinner with my fiancee at X fancy-pants restau," I realize that my REAL answer is very different and I am a little shy about saying it.  Lame!

Bookworms: stand proud!  Writers: shout it out!

The real answer to what I'm doing this weekend? The Usual: Reading and Writing.  Left to my own devices, besides hiking with the dog, tending the bees and all the other activities associated with my suburban farmlet, all I ever want to do is Read and Write.  And so this weekend's To Do list features finishing The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht, reading the last 60 pages of Martha Beck's new Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, making headway in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver so that I can produce my blog post (due Monday) for my beloved From Left to Write online blogger bookclub.  And starting on a book that my so-thoughtful sister had dedicated to me and sneakily mailed, without saying a word: Invoking Lakshmi by Constantina Rhodes.  

Oh, and last but by no means least, working on my own book.  Yes, it's time.

Around all of that, naturally, will be wound some other stuff -- taking clothes to consignment, making dinner for friends, paying bills, hanging out with Joe outside, pulling weeds or staring at the sky (likely both). Taking dozens of pictures of Mr Burns and delighting in his puppyhood, his snuggliness, his ability to get along with everybody, no matter their species.

But what I am most eager for -- the secret drive that underlies everything else -- is always the words on the page, someone else's or my own, always words and stories and books.  Always this funny thing we're able to do, making these meaningful squiggles that transmit so much, working this crazy so-human magic.  Writers are wizards, truly, dunking the readers' heads in the pensieve, immersing us in the experiences of others.  I can't really think of much else that's more satisfying or delightful.

So now, getting down to it.  Wrapping this up so that I can find a cozy spot with Burnsy, him napping, me reading, coffee and pencil within easy reach.

These are my plans for the weekend.  These are my plans for my whole life, really.  Ho hum for some, probably, but for me, so yum.

XX