A Day Off Needs A Day Off
Getting a day off is something people are supposed to enjoy but in my case I usually end up feeling like I wasted it.
I have two schools of thought when it comes to the day off. Either sit around doing nothing but what I like to do, which is not much, or cram as much stuff into the day that I normally wouldn’t have time to do. I’m not really sure which plan of attack is better, but no matter what I do, at the end of the day off I usually feel like I ripped myself off.
I don’t get a lot of days off just to myself. Being a father, husband, homeowner, rockstar and blogger my days outside of my full-time job are usually pretty full. My weekends, the time that people work all week for, are booked up with band practice, writing my blog posts for the week, and hanging out with my wife and 2 year old. If I’m not doing one of those things there is always work around the house that needs to get done. Needless to say, I cherish those extra special days that are just for me, the random day off.
I took a day off from my normal routine not too long ago, but this day off feels like it needs another. This was one of those day offs that I jam-packed full of different things that I needed to get completed.
My dishwasher broke so it needed fixing, I bought a new car and I needed to register and tag it, I was falling behind on my blog post writings, and I had to at least start a website I was hired to create a few days before.
I am not a handy person when it comes to fixing things around my house. In fact, people have called me handy-capped. Yes, I know, how very clever. This being the case, when something in my house breaks (like the dishwasher) I call someone to come fix it, but this also means I have to block a large chuck of time for that person.
The dishwasher guy gave me the time window of 8am and noon, and that gave me plenty of time to catch up on my blog posts. In fact, I wrote 4 weeks worth of iPhone posts and scheduled them for Mondays.
The guy showed up around 9am that morning, and was finished and out of the house by 10:30. Feeling pretty good about myself that I killed two birds with one stone, I called my wife and asked her if she wanted to meet for lunch, we never get to eat alone anymore.
After a nice lunch, I was off to the license bureau to pay thousands of dollars for my brand new used car. Now I don’t want to go too far into this but I think its crap that I have to pay the government more money on something I just spent a ton of money on. I think it’s also crap that I have to go to a special place to do it, why can’t they just have it all taken care of at the car dealership?
After going to two different locations, one to pay property taxes and one to pay sales tax and get new plates, I finished. Surprisingly it only took me 3 hours. There’s really not much too it, drive to one location, wait in line, write them a check then leave for the other place and do it all over again.
I had completed nearly everything I wanted to get done for the day and it was only 4 in the afternoon. There was really no point in driving home to start up the website (which at the time of this posting is nearly complete), because my family would be coming home soon as well and it’s extremely difficult to work with a 2 year old on your lap hitting the keyboard.
With my day off over, I felt a slight sense of accomplishment, but also felt a little ripped off. I miss the days of summer vacation where nothing was asked of you and no one required anything. But thinking back, I also remember long stretches of boredom. Eventually the allure of nothingness wears off and you’re left with nothing. But, then again, nothing would be nice every once in a while, and I’m looking forward to that next day off to do nothing.
A day off is something to cherish. No matter what you end up doing, enjoy every minute of breaking your normal routine. So if you decide that you are going to sit around writing blog posts, paint your house, or sit in the license bureau, try to enjoy it because it is your day off.
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