Weekends

Why is it that weekends are busier than weekdays? One would think that after a very busy 5+ days at work that all we would want to do is relax on the weekend. It doesn't work that way does it? We work all week long till our brain turns to a runny mass reminiscient of Jell-O that was made with too much water - its runny, with a few lumps, and not edible at all. At least that is how I usually feel come Friday afternoon. And this last Friday was no different.

I have been working on a project at work for the past three months, trying to show the partnership between my department and another. You see, when you are looked upon as the one responsible for whether or not the associates get the scores they need (remember, I evaluate their phone calls), it isn't easy to forge civil relationships. Anyway, this project was a contest of sorts with a pretty decent sum of money at the end as the prize. It was so great to watch these people work hard and improve month after month, and it was easy to start to think that I had something to do with that improvement. By running this project, I was helping to facilitate a positive change in the performance of our associates -- pretty cool! Like all fun things though, this too had to end, and that end came this past week. The winners have been announced, the final statistics have been run and communicated, and I'm completely spent. My boss came to me yesterday and said that one of the managers asked him to start readying for another contest. To my great relief he told that person that it would take some time. Time to regroup, rest, and get back to the focus of our current dilemma - finishing our usual work. I wasn't ready to do this again. Yes, it had a positive outcome. Yes, the associates did like it. But my sanity was suffering and I was one day away from landing in our local loony bin restrained to my bed and screaming, "No more pirates!" Hmm..never mind. It was a good experience all in all. Lessons were learned. Some went home winners, and some just went home. And me? I took a deep breath, exhaled, and found that my life was not over -- yet.

Then comes the end of the day. I was walking through our parking lot (which is becoming more and more crowded these days) to my van. My thoughts turned back to the events of the week, and I found myself locked on a particular moment of a particular day. That moment is carrying me all through the weekend. I can't help it. As much as my readers would love me to, I'm not going into detail - it wouldn't be appropriate for now. Lets just say that I'm finding something out about myself that I never knew before and it is making me a little nervous, even if I say that I never get nervous, or that I hardly ever freak out about anything. We will see where the wind blows this.

Last night, we took my daughter and her friend to see a movie - yes, we saw Music and Lyrics again. I can't get enough of it, and when it comes out on May 8th on DVD I'm getting it. I LOVE the soundtrack. It was a good time, but I tell you, 11 year old girls can be a real pain. MacKenzie is a sweet girl. Really! She is lovable and affectionate, but she can be mean, and selfish too. We picked up her friend, went to Ruby Tuesday for supper, and to the movie. When it was over, Mac begged and begged for her friend to be able to spend the night, though we had disscussed previously it wasn't going to happen. She got mad, pouted, you know the drill. I got to thinking -- what the hell? Then I realized that she is hormonal whether I like it or not, and I'm just going to have to deal with it.

To add insult to injury, Larry is in the doghouse this week. I'm typically easy to get along with. I'm not too demanding or too overbearing, of him or the kids. The kids can be a challenge to deal with, and lately, Larry seems to only focus on the difficulties. Many things that the kids do are just because that is what kids do - for lack of a better phrase. They challenge, they push, they shove, and the whine when they don't get their way. That is the way of the child. He can't handle it. He demands that I punish them for every little infraction. I have found that grounding them is laughable because no one in our household knows how to enforce it. He has been quick to tell me about the awful things that they do, but leaves out the good stuff. It gets on my nerves, and last night in the movie theater before the movie started, I told him that he was starting to really piss me off. I had the kids before he married me. They were little when we began dating. He loved them then. I asked him if he thought that they would be little forever...of course not. He said then that they can be difficult. I said that parenting is not easy. I told him when he married me, he got the family, not just me. I told him to think about that, and that is where we left it.

What is it that we do - adults I mean - to each other? I would like to think that the perfect relationship begins as a friendship. You find things you have in common. You participate in activities that you both enjoy. You decide then that you think you can hang with this person the rest of your life, and you get married. You begin a family, you love them, raise them. You still do things that you enjoy, but now those things are geared more toward the family than the couple. When the kids grow up and have their own interests, you spend more time as a couple again. When the children move on to have their own lives, marriages, families, you become two once again. Do you have the same things in common? Do you enjoy the same activities?

Probably not. More than likely one of you needs a hip replacement from all the lawn mowing and the other has bursitis from holding babies all the time.

Suck it up and go to the doctor!!