Labor Day Weekend

September 5, 2011

And so it ends.  My 3 day weekend is almost over.  Kids are in bed (though one is having issues going to sleep), Marcy is sewing a smock for Anastasia’s art class, and I’ve finished preparations for the “end of the weekend”.  This generally entails getting all the trash and recycling gathered and put out to the curb, getting my lunch packed for tomorrow, and measuring out my cereals for breakfast at work.

I like to eat breakfast at my desk at work, since I work out in the morning and go straight to work after a shower.  Tuesday’s and Thursday’s are  cardio around the neighborhood, whereas Monday, Wednesday and Friday is a bit of cardio and then weight lifting at a gym about 1/2 mile from the office.  Eating breakfast at work gives me time to relax a bit before the fast paced activity of the Tech Department gets into full swing.

Why am I relating this, admittedly, boring aspect of my everyday life?  Just to give you a glimpse into my quest for escape and relaxation that takes form in my hobbies of movies, reading and gaming.  I find myself getting burnt out and bored with the everyday duties of grown-up life and being able to turn my brain off for a few hours watching a movie, reading a FICTION story, or going to a game night helps me keep focused when I need to be.

Generally, the types of games I enjoy tend to be more “experience” games that tell a story and don’t rely too much on thinking or strategy.  I play game for fun, not for trying to out-think my opponent.  If we all work together to fight a viral outbreak, or defeat some monsters that need defeating, even better.  Win or lose, I just like to leave having experienced a great story that I can remember and retell later.  And without these types of “escapes”, I find myself getting burnt-out more than I should or want.

Marcy is wonderful in enduring my weekly gaming nights that take me away after dinner, leaving her to take care of the evening duties of getting the girls to bed and any other normal family duties that have to be done.  I’m sure that this is becoming more and more draining on her, as we get closer and closer to the target date of Munchkin joining our family.  She doesn’t complain, though, and I try to keep my outings limited to just once a week.  After-all, it would be extremely insensitive of me to think that she doesn’t have these feelings also.

So, I try to do everything I can to aid her “quest” for escape and relaxation.  Sometimes I’m not really sure what form of relaxation Marcy is wanting, but I do know she enjoys time to just surf the web and watch some of her shows on T.V.  I try and give her time to herself to go out and do things away from the kids, and sometimes she even takes me up on the offer.  I will gladly do anything she asks because she supports everything I do, even though I’m sure she doesn’t quite understand some of it.  And because of that, even though my escape and relaxation during the weekends don’t quite live up to the “do nothing all weekend but watch movies in my underwear”, I gladly do what I can to make my wife and kids lives as wonderful as possible.  Ultimately, making my family happy makes “short” Labor Day weekends worth every non-gaming, non-movie watching minute that I can pack in.