Weekend Plans Post: The Last Normal Weekend
I had a major meeting at work today and one of the topics that came up was the “what’s everybody’s schedule for November and December? What’s everybody’s schedule for next week?” and, of course, everybody is off Friday, half of everybody is off the days before Thanksgiving and the other half is taking off the first half of the week after.
If you look at the team calendar in any other time of year, it’s mostly white with blue meetings and the occasional colorful line saying that this or that guy is out of town (either on vacation or at HQ or overseas or whatever). December’s calendar with everybody’s vacation time added to it looks like a Costco box of macarons.
Okay, it’s mostly green.
So this weekend is the last one that I’m expecting to do any real visits to Costco. Safeway and Petsmart and whathaveyou should be fine, but Costco is going to be a madhouse for the rest of the year.
Man, remember when we used to go to the mall? Heavy sigh.
So this weekend will be spent discussing Amazon shopping for the fam with Maribou, getting a gaming session in there, and having ONE LAST COSTCO VISIT. Oh, and a friend is visiting from out of town and we’re going to have her over for lunch and we’re going to talk about the last three years and how she’s doing and how we’re doing and holy cow, weren’t the last three years *CRAZY*?
And then I get to go back to work at a ghost town next week. Which might be nice.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is Costco’s Macarons.)
One of the benefits to no longer having family in the area is I don’t have to have them over. š I may go to a friends gathering with her family, but my only effort will be selecting a wine to bring. As to work, it’s the last week of the accounting month, so we’ll be generating prelim invoices and sending them out for approval. The entire team is working the three days. Ain’t no time off BEFORE thanksgiving this year.
With any luck I’ll have time to set up my new gaming gear and play a bit.Report
yes, I remember malls, real malls, the kind that were enclosed and where you could get most things you needed, and even better – there were different price points and different levels of quality in different stores. So “school shoes” came from one store, bought by parents, while “shoes to wear to the Valentine’s Day Dance” were bought at a cheaper flashier store with your own money.
I miss malls. I get why they died, maybe why they had to die, but where I live? It’s wal-mart (ugh) or online shopping, pretty much.
My weekend? This afternoon I drive down to a city in East Texas where I can meet up with a northbound Amtrak train, and I go up to my mother’s in Central Illinois. (I am REALLY hoping for some good resolution to the freight labor dispute before the Dec. 9 deadline – I have another set of tickets for later in November, for Christmas, and am not sure what to do if there is a RR strike – I loathe flying even if I could afford a plane ticket to an airport my mom can pick me up at, and it’s too far for me to drive alone. And I won’t do Greyhound, not after a trip years ago where they had to stop the bus and let a wanted guy be pulled off it….)Report
We still have a strangely functioning mall near me. I have no idea how it holds on, and it’s become kind of a mishmash of old, indoor mall and external retail (our costco for example is both inside and outside of it). I’ve had to go over there twice in the last few weeks and, while I was never a mall person, I found it to be refreshing to actually inspect my purchases instead of hoping that whatever shows up on my doorstep from Amazon at least resembles what I saw on the screen.Report
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Our IT guy does community theater. He started not too long before I made the move to Tulsa, and he was going to be doing a murder mystery dinner theater right after we moved in February. My wife and I were interested, but things were too chaotic to make reservations and commit. He knew we were interested, and he has generally kept us abreast of upcoming performances, but we had not been able to make it work out. Last week he let me know they were doing another murder mystery dinner theatre, “Who Killed Jolly Roger,” and we realized we could make it work this time, so that is our plan for tomorrow evening.
The less fun plan is to rearrange my wife’s home office space. She got a new standing desk, so we will be assembling the desk, moving the old desk, setting up monitors, etc. Not my ideal way to spend a weekend afternoon, but that’s married life sometimes (and if that’s my biggest complaint, I have things pretty good).
I’ll probably try to finish the Dark Souls Board Game campaign I started last week. They released a couple new sets with revised rules and some new systems that largely improved things. I’m playing through The Painted World of Ariamis, but I lost to Crossbreed Priscilla. Like the game, death means you respawn a bonfire and keep going, but I thought that was a good time to pause last weekend. It’s still a long game, which works well for playing solo at home (I can just leave it out on the table), but I cannot imagine trying to get it into a gaming group.
I also haven’t decided if I want to watch AEW Full Gear this weekend. Between all the CM Punk/Elite drama after the last PPV and HHH taking over, I have switched to Smackdown as my primary wrestling show. Up until the switch, I was watching Dynamite weekly, but I was still watching WWE PPVs (which is easy and free, since I have Peacock). I’m not sure if I will still try to keep up with AEW PPVs or not. I will definitely watch the Thanksgiving Weekend War Games themed Survivor Series though.Report
I’ve been working like hell to get a 2nd date with a woman I met via a dating website, but things are looking a bit iffy right now. Pro tip: take your wedding ring off before meeting an unattached person! Things will go a lot smoother.
It’ll be 2 years on Saturday since the passing of my wife. I’m driving out today to pay a visit and spend some time with her parents.Report
If I might I’d like to offer a second tip, as a man who met his wife doing online dating, pre complete Tinder-ization of it (thank God). You will have many nice dates that seem to go splendidly, with women you will never see again. They will almost never tell you that, and there will be a game of missed connections and unfortunate circumstances. It is best to just make peace with it and enjoy the fun of the experience, but not kill yourself trying to make something happen.
I myself developed a ‘call back twice rule’ if I wanted a to see someone again. If I tried twice and she didn’t give the time of day I moved on. She had my number too, after all.Report
Thanks, I’m learning that. Definitely keeping it light. I had one date I thought went really well, we spent an hour and a half over coffee and when I asked her out I got totally shut down. Still chuckling about that one.Report
I was wrong about Costco.
It was Thunderdome.Report
Mom’s 80th yesterday…she asked for the 4 kids and as many grandkids as possible to join her on a (cheap) 3-day cruise out of FL. So I’m writing this from a tiny bump of an island/sand-bar in the Caribbean near Nassau. Happy Birthday, Mom.Report
My son is visiting for Thanksgiving. He went shopping with Mom and brought home that exact box of macarons.Report
Serendipity, baby!Report