A Weekend, A Whole Weekend - For Real!

This past weekend was a real unusual one for me - a gig-free weekend! I have become so accustomed to having gigs or, at the very least, people dropping off sick PCs, that I was almost at a loss for what to do with myself. Almost. What was even better was that my wife, with the exception of a brief one hour stop off at her workplace on Saturday afternoon, didn’t have anything going either.

So how did I spend my time?

• Worked on cleaning up some of the clutter in my home office in the basement.

• Organized a lot of the documents pertaining to my dad’s estate and finances.
• Caught up on some shows that accumulated on my two ReplayTV DVRs.
• Had both breakfast AND dinner at home on Sunday.
• Went for a nice walk with my wife to the local Starbucks on Sunday afternoon for a green tea lemonade. The weather in Chicago last Sunday was phenomenal.
• Helped her plant flowers on the patio off of the kitchen.
• Watched one of the two NetFlix DVDs that have been sitting on top of our entertainment center for weeks. This one was “Elizabethtown.” It was a little tough for me to watch given that it involved the main character’s father passing away (don’t worry, that won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it), but it was a great movie. Ended up buying both volumes of the soundtrack on iTunes.
• Booked a long overdue vacation trip to Hawaii for October. A friend of mine is getting married in Lana’i, so we used it as an excuse to make the trip. It won’t come cheap - we’re splurging and flying first class, and staying in a 5-star hotel in Maui (we’ll spend one night in Lana’i). We were able to dump some Amex Rewards points for Hertz rental certificates and booked a Jeep Wrangler. I’d be lying to say I wasn’t hesitant to spend that much on ourselves for a vacation, but we both have been working our tails off and we deserve it.

I am gearing up for more gigs in the near future, but a whole entire weekend without having to troubleshoot or install something was a real treat. I could get used to it. I did have some clients call me Saturday, three of them in fact, but I was able to address their issues over the phone very quickly.

I could use some more gig-free weekends, especially during this time of year. But as I alluded too earlier, they are such a rarity that I find myself feeling almost guilty about it. I have this little voice in my head saying, “shouldn’t you be setting up a Wireless LAN and installing somebody’s new PC?” I just hope that other little voice, you know, the one that says “you need to take time for yourself and your loved ones” is just a tad louder!

[tags]vacation,gig-free weekend,enjoying the weekend,taking a breather,family time[/tags]