Saturdays

I was going to sit down and write a nice, long, inspirational post on this Saturday morning. But, as you might guess, based on the entry sentence, I will be doing no such thing. No... all week long (and this was a long one), I look forward to Saturday. I love my job, I love my co-workers, and I love the unpredictability (who knew executive assistants, business managers, and human resources coordinators dig and lay gravel paths??) of the five days spent at work. But, I also love my Saturdays. Throughout the week, when I'm short on sleep, busy hanging out with friends and family, trying to coordinate two people's schedules in two different cities with one car, figuring out what's for dinner, and spending the majority of the day on the job, all I can think about is how excited I'll be when it's Saturday and I don't HAVE to do anything. And when Friday comes (only one more day til Saturday!), I think, "Oh MAN. I get to sleep in tomorrow. I can do nothing tomorrow. I can go on a run in the sunshine tomorrow."

Who am I kidding?

No, no. This Saturday (not unlike the rest of them) is packed to the brim with no resting available. Of course, it's different kind of work, the kind that I choose to do, but still, it's not being lazy. This Saturday began at 6:45 a.m. because my stupid brain thinks it's time to get up. And when the brain thinks, there's no stopping where it goes. Therefore, I'm up at 7 this morning, trying to be quiet so as not to wake my peacefully sleeping (jealousy stirs in me at the mention of sleep) husband. Well, there's really no being quiet when I decide to start a load of laundry. One might think I could wait until later, but no, not when there's 5 loads to do, one of which is mud-caked clothes thanks to two days of digging in the rain with my lovely co-workers. So, in goes the laundry.

Then, I realize that the recipe I've landed on for the rolls I'm bringing to dinner tonight at our friends' house are more time-consuming than planned. Thus begins the baking. And while looking on the website for the recipe (which is amazing by the way - Pioneer Woman), I feel ambitious and decide I'm going to make these at the same time. It was a good thought. Until I made the classic mistake of beginning the mixing process before double checking that I have all the ingredients. Ran out of flour. Not good when making a batch of rolls and a batch of breakfast puffs. Good thing is, all my kitchen commotion woke my amazing husband who went to the store for me in his sweats to get more flour. I didn't have to twist his arm too much once I promised to make him a latte and showed him the photo of what was for breakfast. Thank you, husband, for letting me bake for you. So, the rolls begin, the breakfast puffs (as I like to call donut muffins) begin, and I throw all my prep dishes in the dishwasher. That's right, I have a dishwasher. A working one. How bout that!

And in the process of all this, I begin folding and putting away the laundry, realizing that while it is only 10:36, I still have a lot to do in the next 7 hours and 24 minutes before we go to dinner. All of which will be interrupted by a much needed trip to look for a couch... again. Yes, the couch-looking is a never-to-be-completed quest. There's lots to do today, but, it's the only thing I really want to do... look for a couch. That and listen to my dishwasher run.

So, that's what my Saturday has become. And, now, I've taken up just as much time explaining my busy Saturday as it would have taken to write something inspirational. Sorry, this will have to suffice as inspiration. And please don't get confused - this busyness was by choice. I realize that I am inducing self-inflicted work. No big deal. It's life, right?

That thing called the Olympics.

Every two years there's this thing called the Olympics that countries first compete to host and then compete to win. And every two years I watch this thing called the Olympics in mass quantities. I think the television and news-webpages consume me more during when these thing called the Olympics are on than total for the rest of the year. What a waste of time. And, it's not always necessarily my decision to watch the sports or not - that is partially credited to my lovely husband. Any Olympic sport, you name it, I've watched it. And let me tell you, I've learned a lot of new things.

For example:

A. Curling. Who came up with this sport, or should I say hobby? Ok. seriously. curling? Curling. According to the dictionary curling is:
Main Entry: curl·ing
Pronunciation: \ˈkər-liŋ\
Function: noun
Date: 1620
: a game in which two teams of four players each slide curling stones over a stretch of ice toward a target circle
Simple enough, I guess. I watched it for the first time two nights ago and I found myself saying repeatedly "What the heck?" I'm sure that it is much more difficult than appearance lets on, but still. It's weird. Brushing ice with a broom is weird. Hearing "CLEAN! CLEAN" yelled in twenty different languages is also weird.

B. Ice Dancing. No longer ice skating, but ballroom dancing on ice. WELL oookay... It's actually pretty impressive. I will secretly admit that I enjoy watching ice skating, especially pairs. But don't tell anyone.

C. Nordic racing. Wow. These people get going really fast. It's incredible how they zoom down a hill at like 90 miles an hour. Is it bad that my favorite part is watching people face gnarly crashes? Ouch. These people are studs. I wish I was a nordic skier. Too bad chairlifts and me don't get along. That's a historical story for another entry.

D. Speed skating. I put on my leggings and underarmor and said to Mac, "hey, look, I'm Apolo Ohno!" Disregarding the aerodynamic spandex suits, and the fact that they go round and round on the track with what seems to be zero effort, the last 2-4 seconds of these races is actually kind of exciting. Why do I watch 4 hours of television a night for literally 4 seconds of excitement? Apolo Ohno is awesome.

E. I almost forgot - hockey. I love hockey. I didn't use to, but then I watched Olympic hockey and it's much more exciting... there's more strategy, more goals, and more passionate victories. My kind of game.

This is a cop-out first entry in 4 months. I'm trying to ease myself back into the writing nonsense that I use to do so regularly. Hope you enjoyed it.