For children, summer is a time of no commitments, sleeping in, playing all day, and just plain getting bored. Even for some adults, it is full of vacations, long weekends, short workdays, "working from home". I really want to know what companies these people work for. Seriously. I have seen so many people write on Facebook that they are working "summer hours" (what are those!?), or working from home, or having a 3-day weekend. Perhaps the Unicorn Wonderland of Fairytale Professions is hiring...
For most people, myself included, summer is where your free time goes to die. It seems like summer is the time when you could actually use the free time but can never seem to find it. I guess that's why people do "spring cleaning" and not "summer cleaning." No time to do it in the summer!
In the summer, the weather is beautiful and the sunshine beckons to you to come out and play. It's the time for picnics, barbecues, the zoo, al fresco dining, theme parks, trips to the lake, even just sitting outside on your patio. Anything that takes place outside... summer is the best, and sometimes only, time for it. If only you could find the time for the things you want to do between all of your other commitments! Weddings, family reunions, holidays, graduation parties, on and on. I guess everyone else realizes that summer is the best time for most things, as well.
Back in the spring, I remember that my husband Mr. Social Chair told me his goal for the summer was to "do something with other people every week." I told him my goal was to "have at least one free weekend." Last weekend, I finally got my free weekend! Hooray! I used it to catch up on all of the things I have been needing to do and haven't had the time to... mostly household chores, sadly. For about 2 months straight, I swear we had a commitment every single weekend. Sometimes they were "fun" commitments, but commitments nonetheless. Maybe I am a fun-hater, but even fun commitments are exhausting and I often begrudge them the loss of my free time just as much as a boring commitment. Anything that eats into my free time is seen as the enemy. Is it so much to ask to have two full days of relaxation and being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, with no prior commitments? I don't think so. That is all I want in the summer, and it is what I can rarely get. Sigh.
Now that the 4th is over, however, July is a wide-open month of zero commitments. It is a glorious month, indeed. My birthday is this weekend, and my wedding anniversary is the next, but I have no plans for either. And, I am loving it! I told Steve I wanted to at least do something for my birthday, and I decided I probably want to go pig out on crab legs somewhere. He said that maybe we can invite another couple, and you know what? I don't even want to invite anyone to my birthday feast (except
I think all of the busy-ness of May and June has caused me to avoid making plans of any kind because they are just overwhelming and saddening to me at this point... like I'm in a cage. I want no plans. No commitments. Care-free, spontaneous summer. Maybe we will actually find time to finish unpacking boxes from when we moved 8 months ago, or maybe I will actually organize my closets, or cook a real meal more than once a week... or, gasp, do some recreational writing. Who knows? Anything is possible in The Land of No Commitments.
I may have been swallowed up by summer, but it has now spit me out again. I hope I left a bitter taste in its mouth, because I would really enjoy if it didn't catch up with me again this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment