Write: Lazy Sunday

I’m having One of Those Days.  It’s one of those days between days.  Between finishing something and starting something new.  A day where the potential is there, but there’s a benefit in not jumping in too quickly.  Benefit in just taking a bit more time to let things be.  Benefit in looking a bit more before leaping.  I’m having a Lazy Sunday.

First, shout out to the still awesome SNL Digital short where Adam Samberg and Chris Parnell rap about a lazy Sunday consumed with buying Magnolia cupcakes and watching The Chronicles of Narnia at an Upper West Side cinema in “Lazy Sunday.” [Season 31, 2005].

Around here it’s mid-April.  It’s our second Spring here in the new house and the weather has been pretty typically gray and wet.  I’ve been telling Christina I really need a run of 60 degree days to feel like we’re out of the winter days.  But, the weather works on its own timetable.  This is what we woke up to just four days ago, on April 12th.

I may be done with winter, but winter is clearly not done with us.  Or maybe it is now?  I don’t know.

When I woke to the snow the other day, I recall feeling badly.  For the plants and flowers who just have to be ready to just grow, without having to worry about having snow sitting on them.  Again.

Some of the things around here that flower just said “Screw this, we’re flowering!”

And some of the things that will flower, like the rhododendrons and the apple tree and getting ready, but having really committed yet, if you know what I mean.  They have blooms and buds and are starting to get small leaves, but they feel like they’re just hunkering down awaiting that same stream of 60 degree days that I am holding out for.

The weather app I use keeps taunting me, holding a day or three of 60+ degree estimates out at the end of its 10-day forecast.  I get excited, but inevitably, those 60 degree days turn back in to mid- to low-50s and rain.

One of the things I miss least about working regularly is that weekends inevitably felt like something precious because I only had a couple of days a week to do things that required daylight or required more than an hour or two to do.  This gave weekends a certain frenzied quality which made them special in the sense that they were regular, but not special in the sense that you felt obligated to bust your ass because Monday was coming in just two short days and you had things to get done!

Now, if I don’t get something done Sunday (today), I can reasonably just say I’ll get it done tomorrow.  And maybe tomorrow will be a little drier or a little bit warmer or a bit more inviting.  I don’t have to rush it.  

I’m between larger projects right now as well.  I have, as I tell Christina regularly, a large list of projects to work on.  Between my own things or things that need to get done around here or whatever the source, I do not lack for things that could absorb my time and energy, but I’m letting myself slide a bit.  Letting myself recharge a bit.  Just letting myself be today because that sounds better than forcing myself to go work on something I’m not excited about just because it’s Sunday and Monday is tomorrow.

So, I took a nap.  Naps are awesome.  I can’t say that’s a post-retirement thing.  Naps have always been awesome.  I was telling some friends about how an occasional nap is a wonderful thing to be enjoyed and cherished and one friend said he never naps and I’m sure he felt a little sad for me like I was missing out on things and I know I felt a little sad for him because he’s missing out on a nap!  My naps don’t run more than an hour or so, plus maybe 30 minutes of wind-down and wind-up on either end.  

I’m also spending some time today replaying a game, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey on the PS5.  This is a great game.  I just recently replayed Witcher 3, which came out in 2015, as they remastered it and, yes, it’s pretty, but it’s also a big, sprawling RPG that hits all the right notes for me.  It was also fun to replay, but I did recall many of the major story beats, so that did make the replay a little less satisfying.  AC:O came out in 2018.  I thought five years since I played it would be enough that I’d enjoy playing it again and I do, but, yeah, I still recall the major story beats, so mostly it’s fun for the little things like trying to take down a fort without taking any damage.  Not usually via stealth, per se, but rather by sniping the entire fort from a rooftop while they run around trying to figure out who is killing them.  It’s fun!

It’s too bad that it’s so hard for many of us to enjoy a Lazy Sunday.  For many, it’s rare that we have a Sunday where we can just be lazy without feeling or being made to feel guilty.  Because there is so much to do and what feels like so little time to do it in.  Often in the American culture, we hear about folks who retire and are dead in six months and somehow it’s blamed on them retiring.  And, to be clear, I don’t think retirement is for everyone!  If you can’t sufficiently structure your time so you’re not bored and you don’t end up on a porch rocking chair with nothing to keep you engaged in the world, then yeah, retirement may not be for you.  There are a ton of stories of folks whose fathers continued to practice law (or whatever) into their 70s and if that’s where they get their joy, then I support their decision to do that 100%.  On the other hand, if you don’t get your life satisfaction from your job and you have the option to do other things with your time that do provide satisfaction, engagement and joy, then definitely do those things!

And, if the side effect of that is that occasionally you have a Lazy Sunday because it’s a wet, gray day outside and it feeds your soul more to just play a game a bit longer or read a book or take a nap or hang out with your favorite person just because they’re your favorite person.  Well, that ain’t so bad!