October 11, 2002

Mapping out the weekend

Being cash-poor, and yet suffering from an extremely low threshold for boredom, makes planning our weekend activities somewhat of a challenge.

I'm on top of it today, though. After thinking hard, and perusing the numerous websites of "What To Do In Arizona When You're Bored And Broke", I've come up with a number of activities.

Tonight I will order a pizza, stuff some beers in a cooler, and throw a blanket in the back of the truck. After dropping Marie off at whatever social occasion is occupying her tonight, I will force Calvin to go to the park with me. We will spread out the blanket and eat pizza and drink beer and gaze at what stars are visible in our crazy-bright suburb.

At first he will not be interested, I'm sure. Oh, it's not that he doesn't want to spend time with me, doing quasi-romantical things. We're just restless, and let's face it - an evening at the park is not high on our list of Exciting Things To Do. But I have a theory that if I can just get us out the door and in the truck, we'll have a good time despite ourselves. It's just what happens when we spend time together. Bored or not, at least we're together. We've done this, or a derivative of this, before - the most famous and oft-referred to occasion being shortly after he moved in with me, and we split a pizza on the roof of my (our!) house. We always end up having great conversations and coming home (or climbing down) refreshed. Al fresco dining does that to you, I believe.

After which, we shall soak in the hot tub. After that, I suspect we'll end up doing what comes naturally to us, given a kid-free evening. Heh.

Good times.

Saturday morning I'm getting up early and meeting Heather at a park in a nearby town, to participate in "Barktoberfest". I'm taking Gadget. He'll be, I'm sure, ecstatic to the point of piddling to be taken for a ride in the truck, at the other end of which is a whole day filled with sniffing other dogs' asses. The event benefits Friends for Life Animal Sanctuary, a volunteer-based, nonprofit animal-welfare organization. The website is here, and I love how they describe the event:

"While the day may not incorporate some of your dog's most specific notions of paradise -- hump-ready legs of all shapes and sizes, an open bar pouring toilet water bottled by year and municipality, dog butts as far as the eye can see -- Barktoberfest should please the pooch nonetheless."

As expected, when I mentioned it over the phone to Calvin, he was all, "Yeah, well, have fun." It only goes until 2:00, though. And maybe if I'm extra special nice to him, and bring him his coffee and rub his feet, he'll change his mind tomorrow morning and decide to come with.

Yeah. I doubt it, too.

I'll ask Marie to come along, of course. But her usual habit is to sleep until noon on weekends, so I'm going to take a major leap here and assume she'll decline.

Saturday night I think we'll go to Beeloe's, an underground bar we've gone to a few times. They usually have good live music (my current fave is a reggae/jazz band called "Azz Izz"), and the atmosphere is retro-artsy-funk.

Sunday morning I intend to get us up early and do what we've been intending to do for several weekends, now. Go on an early morning motorcycle ride, having breakfast somewhere along the way. We usually take the same route when we go on rides, and I'd love to find a new direction to go in. As would Calvin, I'm sure. Of any activities intended for this weekend, this one will probably be the most enthusiastically met.

Tempe Town Lakes hosts free concerts on Sunday afternoons at 5:00, every weekend from now until the end of December. We'll probably head over there and check it out. There's something appealing about sitting in an outdoor amphitheater, on the edge of the (man-made) lake, watching the sun go down and listening to live music.

In among this stuff is a couple of workouts, laundry, general house cleaning, and maybe even getting the gutters up. Plus grocery shopping, can't forget that. The cupboards are rather bare at the moment. I'll probably take a couple of hours to clean out my closet and bring my winter clothes to the forefront (though it's still in the 90's around here - I'm nothing if not optimistic).

Gripping stuff, isn't it? I know you guys are just riveted.

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©Laura Charon 2000 - 2002.