I was lucky enough to be on an above-ground train this evening as the sun was setting over Old Town Alexandria. The first clue of its gorgeousness was actually the pink hue cascading over the D.C. skyline on the other side of the river, but I was on the wrong side of the train to capture that.
I embark upon a cross-country work trip Wednesday, the first of four trips in the next month, so a lot of my weeekend to-do list focuses on prepping for that.
But it also includes some fun, as well:
How about you? What are you hoping to do on this final weekend of January?
I have Monday off, which means I get to fill three days with some combination of fun and chores. Here’s some of what I’m thinking that might include:
What are you thinking about doing this weekend?
It was a surprisingly balmy weekend for January, and I was lucky enough to be able to spend a good deal of it outside. Which means my living room is still a hot mess, only one load of laundry got done, and the tree is still inside and covered in lights (although the ornaments are off).
I don’t regret any of it, and I’m glad that some of my tasks were mobile. I’ll be spending some of my evenings playing catch-up this week, but I think it will have been worth it.
How was your weekend?
Oops! Apparently in my haste to finish my post and go to bed, I forgot the key step of hitting publish. Here’s my weekend planning, now partway in:
I think this is the last weekend I’ll have without plans for a while, although there’s a possibility that bowling doesn’t start until the following week. Volleyball does kick off this coming week, so at the very least it’s the final week where my physical activities consist only of walking and cycling. (Don’t be impressed by the cold-weather biking; it’s pretty much just the couple miles to work in the morning. And even then it’s only because I’m impatient and a procrastinator and would rather leave for wherever I’m going at the latest possible moment.)
Anyway, how am I thinking I’ll spend these next two uninterrupted days of inactivity?
I have some fun things lingering from Christmas (movies I wanted to watch and a couple other things), so Rudi and I may queue up some dvds after he gets back from ski coaching tomorrow and Sunday.
I put a bunch of things on hold at the library and then failed to put some of those holds on pause, so I have nine (!!) books waiting at the local branch. I also have a couple dvds they’d like back, so I’ll take a walk down there and then tote my treasure home.
My living room once again looks like hobos reside in it while I’m at work. I mean, sure, they’re using Rudi’s and my stuff, but I’m certain that’s just a coincidence, right?
Laundry must be done so I don’t have to wear fun but uncomfortable underwear to work this week. (I refuse to believe I’m the only one here swayed by cute patterns at the store only to find elastics will not stay in the right spot when you want to do something strenuous like walk more than a dozen steps.)
We also need to then take down the Christmas tree. Ornaments are starting to slide down branches, and I fear breakable baubles will soon fail to defy gravity.
And finally, I hear rumors that the sun will peek out at some point over the weekend — likely on Sunday — at which point I will drop whatever I’m doing (unless it’s breakable, in which case I will carefully put it down first) and run outside to soak up some wintry rays. The sun is back to setting after 5 p.m., so that could potentially include quite a few hours outside reading and/or knitting. Hooray!
What do you have planned for the weekend?
I captured only the low-hanging fruit this weekend. I slept in. I got outside (in a steady drizzle yesterday and the sun today). I went to the library (and the grocery store and the farmers market). I stopped by the garden to take down the last of the vegetable cages and stakes I’d left up in November.
I left a message for my friend. I raced through The Art of Theft. (I now need to track down Sherry Thomas’ The Heart of the Blade series for more of a crossover character.)
Other projects proved more high-jump than hurdle. I thought about doing laundry, but then decided having the drying rack in the shower (where we put it during the Christmas season to avoid giving cats a perch from which to bat at upper-level ornaments) would be inconvenient to my pre-work trip shower. I looked for semolina flour for the shortbread, but didn’t buy any. I’m not sure emptying one bag and vacuuming really constitutes tidying. I took my shawl with me, but didn’t actually sit down to knit. I spent too much time playing on my phone and not enough writing Christmas cards. I read instead of writing that best of 2019 post, which I suppose was a fair trade. And I watched a terrible Christmas-themed sitcom instead of a terrible Christmas-themed movie, which was probably an improvement.
Luckily, as Karen noted in her comment to me, it’s too early in the year to feel guilty over how a weekend is spent (particularly after a month of feeling guilty for not accomplishing more most weekends). Volleyball doesn’t start for another week, so I can spend tomorrow evening finishing my Christmas correspondence. And maybe I can set aside another evening for finishing my shawl. After all, how awesome will it be to have my first finished object of the year so early in January?