A three-day weekend ought to mean tons of accomplishments, be they fun or necessary, but I feel like mine fell short, but that may be because it did not include the 40 bazillion things I always want to fit into my weekends.
We started the weekend with a night at the ballpark and a Mets victory over the hometown Nationals. We biked home via Barracks Row, where we heard the final song, with cannon fire, from the Marines’ band concert, and the Capitol grounds.
On Saturday, we slept in and took a leisurely approach to the day, which is probably where I fell down the rabbit hole of time. We went to our first same-sex marriage ceremony, a couple of cycley friends of Rudi’s, where we had a nice time, where I got to meet someone I “know” via social media, and where I came away with a literal bucketful of purple and blue flowers. I also finished knitting a pair of socks.
On Sunday, I hit the farmers market, where the highlight was vanilla peach jam, swam, and harvested tomatoes and basil from our garden. Caprese sandwiches (featuring the aforementioned garden veg) and corn on the cob comprised our traditional Sunday dinner.
And today was more of the same: swimming (one last time before they closed the pool), gardening (we planted some arugula and chard where we yanked up kale yesterday), and hung out at the park with cold drinks as the sun sank into the distance.
I fell down on the writing program during the first week, when I was in Salt Lake and struggled to catch up while not getting further behind on week two, which essentially meant I sat, paralyzed, staying frantically at the assignments each day. Ultimately, I pulled myself together before week three started, finished up the missing week one work, and began anew with week two, seven days behind the rest of my cohort, but still working and writing, which is probably the key thing to keep in mind. (Incidentally, if you’d like some help establishing a writing practice or just want some help in being accountable to yourself for your writing practice, the next Write Now session begins Sept. 30 and I highly recommend it.)
Similarly, Laurie Halse Anderson, author of the award-winning Speak, has declared September to be a month for writing fifteen minutes a day (#wfmad on Twitter), and since that was my original goal with Amanda’s program, I shall make doubly sure I’m getting it done by committing to writing 15 minutes a day on the blog. (Admittedly, some posts may not require that much work, so I’ll add on to those days by working on some longer posts for publication on other days. (Remember when I did things here like review books?)
In addition to writing, the week ahead holds sauce making (and maybe pasta making if I can get my hands on some semolina flour), outdoor showings of The Avengers and Casablanca (on different nights; that would be a weird double feature!), and a picnic at the Yards. I’m also hoping to finish reading a book and resume knitting on either my shawl or a short-sleeved sweater. Oh! And sign up for fall volleyball. I’ve got to get that taken care of, too!
(Weekending, plus, with Amanda.)