2023-04-02

Appreciating the weekend

Working full time really makes you appreciate the weekends more. I have been running my own business, with no set schedule, for so many years, and the freedom of setting my own hours had made me no longer differentiate in any meaningful way between weekdays and weekends, between working hours and off hours, between night and day.

No more now though. Having a full time "actual job" Monday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm at an actual—although very nice—office has made everything different. And it has made me appreciate my time away from work.

I can now get home at night and feel that the laptop can stay in the bag. I can, for the most part, push my work thoughts to the side and feel that there is no need to sit at my desk until midnight to fix things. There will be time to do it in the morning. (I do realise that I spend all yesterday fiddling with the Stream Deck, which I will use at work, but I don't really consider setting it up and playing with it work as such.)

My mornings are now a lot earlier also. By waking up at 6 am as opposed to 10 am (or later) I am suddenly able to get so much more done before lunch. Yes, I feel tired getting up, but it's really not that bad. And when the clock approaches 5 pm I try to finish upp any loose ends (which occasionally do require me to stay a bit past 5 I'll admit) and go home with the nice feeling that I don't need to do anything more right now. Not until the next morning.

And then there are the weekends. I now actually have weekends.

A Lazy Sunday

Today was Sunday the second of April. Outside there was still snow, and the temperature was just barely above zero, but the sun was shining and it felt quite nice to open the blinds and let the light shine through.

I was awake and out of bed before 9 am, and decided to just sit on the floor and start building my new Lego set. I even had a little breakfast, and then later made lunch. I didn't feel any need to wake up my computer.

Today happen to be my little brothers birthday, and he messaged me around lunchtime asking if they could come by with some cake. An hour or so later he arrived with his two kids and nice cake. After eating we went for a little walk to the playground at the park nearby. The sun shone through the clouds every so often. Things felt pretty nice.

Tomorrow morning I will be back at work. It will be chaos as usual. A pile of e-mail, bugs to fix, meetings to attend. But for now? I am perfectly happy just sitting here, looking out through my open blinds as the sun sets.