No days "off"

My concept of “the weekend” is pretty well broken. I feel that most people think the weekend is their time to kick back and relax. I spend my weekends trying to jam in all those kinds of things that I couldn’t put together over the course of the workweek. Perhaps the most famous example of this was the last time I went to play Hail to the Chicken in Oregon. I think it was a Tuesday. It might not have been, but whatever. If memory serves me, I was doing a bowling-alley day shift in West Seattle, then had to make a connection at the Storm offices in Interbay, then had to pick up Emily over in the U-District, and then get on I-5 and drive until I got to Salem, Oregon. Then we played Hail to the Chicken for a couple hours, we got back in my car, and drove to Seattle before collapsing asleep quickly because I had to work again the next day. It would be a little over the top to say “those are the kinds of days that I have,” but here’s the thing; I would totally do that again, and I can give you several examples of more recent similar days.

For example, I had weekend days this fall that started with playing in two baseball games on the eastside, then changing clothes in the car and driving into town to work a volleyball match before meeting up with someone to go to the Hurricane Café for a late-night hangout.

There’s something to be said for this kind of life. When things go well, it can be really fun: spending eight hours in a car with the right company is excellent, especially with a two-hour chicken-hailing break. People I know from college are quick to point out how I know everybody, and that’s partly because I really enjoy interacting with different groups of people. I recently met with a couple different groups on the same day when I played flag football with the guys I know because of the Internet and then left to go do play rehearsal with folks I know because of Church. Aside from having the drive to go do these kinds of things, I have to say it’s gotten easier over time now that I can have my calendar in my pocket at all times to stay on top of my ever-increasing and ever-changing commitments.

It is a double-edged sword, however. Sometimes things just don’t end up working out, or meeting commitments can become a stressful experience. Take today, for example. Friday I woke up early to meet a friend of mine to borrow his laptop. Then I worked out for a half an hour, drove to Seattle Pacific and did statistics input for four basketball games all the while hammering out details for my Canadian basketball trip on Saturday, my volunteer sleepover at my Church which I wound an-hour-and-a-half late to (there’s an art show there. The artists have left their things out and I’m sleeping here to prevent theft), watched a woman back her car into the side of mine while attempting a several-point turn (that wasn’t on my calendar), removed a good many objects from my car, and assuming I wake up tomorrow, I will have lived to tell the tale.

I have to admit that I don’t much like the risks of the lifestyle, having to hurry as much as I feel I do, but the rewards are pretty big when everything goes well. There’s also something fun for me to look back at what I’ve done over the course of a day or a week and ask, “How did I do that?” and genuinely mean it. It’s almost as if I get to pretend that I was a superhero or something.