My relaxing weekend:
Friday
4:30 PM: Official end of work day at day job.
5:30 PM: End of mandatory-attendance formal presentation event. Grab portable food and return to office to deal with ongoing crisis.
6:00 PM: Give up solving crisis before Monday morning. Send email to this effect to those affected. Actual departure from day job.
6:15 PM: Arrive home. Frantically do food prep for evening's dance. Spend fifteen minutes churning through green room looking for black evening pants. Remember why it is a bad idea to have all one's clothing be black. Find pants neatly on hanger on costume rack. Why are they there? Finish dressing, do hair, load car.
7:15 PM: Out the door for dance.
11:45 PM: Return home from dance, richer but completely exhausted. Remember that I promised to read Zelazny book as soon as I received it. Received it Wednesday. Late. Oops. Crawl into bed and open book.
Very soon after: Fall asleep while reading page three of book.
3:44 AM: Wake up with book on lap, glasses still on face, and light still on. Remove glasses and book, turn out light, go back to sleep.
Saturday
6:00 AM: Alarm goes off. Stare at alarm in utter disbelief. Hit snooze.
6:18 AM: Remember that I am not ready for today's workshop and crawl out of bed. So not-awake that I almost run into doorframe while exiting bedroom.
7:15 AM: Fed and showered and dressed, settle down to work on dance notes and music selection. Post long explanation to mailing list of why group associated with list is dysfunctional.
9:15 AM: Give up on rewriting Court Quadrille notes and decide to go with draft version.
9:30 AM: Set out for workshop site.
10:00 AM: Workshop starts.
During the day: Decide chassé-croisé for sixteen is one of the best quadrille moves to watch, ever. Also: Dodworth was on drugs when he wrote the Court Quadrille instructions. There is no other excuse for this collection of errors.
7:15 PM: Return from workshop, richer but completely exhausted. Remember I need to sew for tomorrow. Laugh hollowly. Crawl into bed and try to continue Zelazny book.
Very soon after: Fall asleep while reading page ten of book.
2:33 AM: Wake up with book on chest and glasses still on face. Remove book and glasses and turn out light.
Sunday
6:00 AM: Alarm goes off. Stare at alarm in utter disbelief. Hit snooze.
6:27 AM: Remember that I need costume/hair/makeup for this one. Crawl out of bed. Manage to avoid doorframe this time.
8:15 AM: Fed, showered, hair and makeup done, costume on. Remember how much better costume would look if I had sewn last night. Oh, well. Collect fliers, business cards, CDs to sell, completely different costume for tonight's banquet, etc. Pack and load car.
9:00 AM: Curl up under blanket to make dance notes and download all pertinent directions.
10:00 AM: Carpool arrives. Realize dress is now a mass of wrinkles from being curled up in. Decide to live with it. Head for Massachusetts.
1:00 PM: Tea dance begins.
4:00 PM: Tea dance ends.
4:13 PM: On road again. It is pouring.
6:20 PM: Arrive in town, having more or less swum home along I-95. Go straight to evening escort's house to change and do a frantic revamp of hair and makeup from period to modern. Give car keys to carpool person and tell her to drop my car at my place and give keys back tomorrow.
6:33 PM: Walk into banquet (day job function) just as seating is beginning. Banquet is very nice. Share table with escort and eight Mormons. Repress all unfortunate impulses to inquire about (1) their theology, (2) their presumed opposition to civil rights, (3) ritual undergarments. Instead bond politely over our mutual lack of interest in the four bottles of wine and the after-dinner coffee and tea. Wonder if I was placed at this table deliberately because of personal abstemiousness. Become fascinated by orientation of dessert plates. Repress urge to turn desserts into round-robin game of miniature catapults. Instead point out resemblance to IDIC and begin Star Trek conversation. Suspect my personality not well suited to formal banquets. When will dancing start?
11:31 PM: Arrive home from banquet after showing off with some dance moves and watching a great deal of very odd modern-style dancing to very dubious music.
11:37 PM: In bed with book.
11:40 PM: Realize am reading page twelve of Zelazny book for third time.
11:41 PM: Realize page twelve has no words on it, just a picture. Stop trying to read it.
11:42 PM: Start blog post about awful weekend schedule.
11:58 PM: Post post.
11:59 PM (projected): Remove glasses. Fall asleep.
You need Alfred, to complement your Batman...
Posted by: Larisa | December 17, 2009 at 02:49 PM
Oy. It sounds like you had some fun in there, but how exhausting!
My weekend:
Friday: Plans to visit grandparents dumped in favour of trying to recover, both physically and mentally, from previous day's Mediaeval Law final exam. Stay in bed pretty much all day. Be thankful for husband who doesn't mind doing groceries and cooking.
Saturday: Take son to doctor. Pick up library books and son's prescription. Stay in bed remainder of day reading one of said books and trying to recover physically from driving around earlier.
Sunday: Cringe at thought of having to listen to Harvey Fierstein's voice for hours. Go with husband to see Fiddler on the Roof, with Fierstein replacing injured Topol. Eat dinner at downtown diner and lament at having had to listen to Fierstein's voice for hours. Go home, get into bed and read while trying to recover physically from lots of sitting earlier.
Posted by: Carol Witt | December 17, 2009 at 03:01 PM
LOL I've had nights like that, where I can't stay awake to read. Don't worry, we'll give you extra time.
The only plans I have are Friday for getting Junie's buspar and Saturday for bookgroup.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | December 17, 2009 at 04:28 PM
Larisa,
Well, I had my friend Irene, who provided the food for the tea dance and took my car home while I went to the banquet.
Marilee,
I've finished it! See next post!
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | December 17, 2009 at 09:30 PM
Well, it looks like we won't have bookgroup -- we're due for 6-12" of snow starting tonight.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | December 18, 2009 at 05:18 PM
Yikes, the weatherguy just said 8-16 inches!
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | December 18, 2009 at 05:21 PM
I hope we don't get hit too hard up here -- I have to drive to Boston tomorrow and return Sunday night!
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | December 18, 2009 at 05:24 PM
I won't go into the details of Wednesday, but I'll say this is the LAST TIME that I let work get in the way of an officially "off" day. Two years in a row, work has caused me to sleep less than 4 hours when I was about to undertake an 800-mile drive. At least we didn't hit a snow storm this year.
Posted by: Serge | December 19, 2009 at 12:16 AM
Serge,
I think I will still be able to get to Boston safely tomorrow, but am a little worried about getting back Sunday night. The snow should have ended well before that, but the roads may still be rather messy.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | December 19, 2009 at 02:38 AM
I was scheduled to fly from New York to Atlanta Sunday morning. Bad idea, considering the blizzard. So now I'm taking the train today instead.
Posted by: Mary Aileen | December 19, 2009 at 08:49 AM
Are you going away for the whole week, Mary Aileen? My holiday plans have dwindled to a couple of days at my mom's in NJ. I'm simply too tired to do anything more.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | December 19, 2009 at 08:55 AM
Susan... the roads may still be rather messy
Don't risk it then. Last year, it took me over 100 miles of driving, exhausted, thru that snow storm when I decided that any more of this would result in our deaths, so we stopped in Kingman, Arizona. Good thing I did because, next morning, I saw many cars in ditches along the later part of the highway.
Posted by: Serge | December 19, 2009 at 09:06 AM
Serge,
If I let a foot of snow stop me from driving I wouldn't go anywhere for two months every year! This is New England, after all. I'll be careful, but nothing I have seen suggests any reason to strand myself in Boston.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | December 19, 2009 at 09:32 AM
True, Susan, true. I guess my having left winterland more than 20 years ago has had its effect on me. That became quite obvious to me 3 years ago when I was driving around barely snowy Albuquerque and the minivan started skidding and ended against a lamp post. One $1000 of damage. Not quite the perfect event for Valentine's Day. As for last year, I might have kept going if I had not been so tired, but I was, and my reflexes were definitely not up to par. TRhat being said, I wish you a safe ride back.
Posted by: Serge | December 19, 2009 at 12:29 PM
We have 12" so far and apparently expect another 10-12". At least the blizzard warning is off.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | December 19, 2009 at 03:35 PM
Well, I'm up in Boston. Tonight's ball was cut short because they decided to declare a snow emergency and ban on-street parking. Not that there is so much as a dusting of snow yet -- they're just being preemptive.
More annoyingly, the hall cancelled tomorrow's tea dance, which leaves me up in Boston without the gig I'd planned to do tomorrow, but unable to drive home because CT is already getting hit (and I'm too tired anyway). Getting out tomorrow is going to be a royal pain.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | December 19, 2009 at 11:45 PM
Bah humbug, Susan.
Posted by: Serge | December 20, 2009 at 01:18 AM
We ended up with 20" and the snow in front of the van is about three feet high, so I'll be in for about a week. No big deal, other than getting the mail.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | December 20, 2009 at 04:36 PM
Marilee... Thanks for yet another reminder that snow is pretty to look at, but not to be IN.
Posted by: Serge | December 21, 2009 at 08:13 AM
*grumble* *grumble*
I managed to unearth my front steps and the sidewalk in front of my house and from my back steps to my garbage cans. Fortunately it will take me three months to actually fill my gigantic, city-issued garbage cans, since getting them all the way to the street may not happen until snowmelt.
I have not yet tackled my driveway, which is completely blocked by the snow-berm created by the plows. Fortunately I have no tenant at the moment, so I don't absolutely have to do the driveway -- I can just park on the street, though it's not my top choice.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | December 21, 2009 at 09:47 AM
We don't have anywhere to put this much snow, so alternate parking spots are full of very tall snow. I was hoping the plow would come through today and pile it in one of the rarely used parking lots, but it didn't. Maybe tomorrow, since so many people were off work today.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | December 21, 2009 at 04:08 PM
I made it to Atlanta safely on the train--ten hours late because of the storm. I'll be here the rest of the week, returning home next weekend.
I'd like train travel a lot more if I could sleep sitting up. (But I'm still fond of trains.)
Posted by: Mary Aileen | December 21, 2009 at 06:12 PM