Free Weekends

I'm back, after my breather. Finally, after today and tomorrow, my string of work-interrupted weekends will stop,at least for awhile. This weekend is the umpteenth one that I've had to share with client meetings of one sort or another. Today, it's a board of directors meeting that begins at 5:00 pm and concludes tomorrow afternoon, though it's preceded by an earlier work session with a subcommittee.

A past president of one of the groups I work with advises me, strongly, to simply put my foot down and let the clients set their schedules around mine. I really should do that; this business of 4-6 weekends in a row, particularly in the heart of the summer, effectively stolen from me...it's just annoying.

This theft of weekend time notwithstanding, my lovely wife and I have tried to inject some relaxation into the weekends when we can. Last night, we went to see The Sugar Bean Sisters at the Water Tower Theatre, where we get season tickets each year. The play is described as "an offbeat story of romance, murder and alien abduction" set in a "wonderfully weird and wacky world that combines Tennessee Williams with Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Generally, Water Tower Theatre does a great job and has only rarely disappointed us. Last night was one of those rarities. We did something we hardly ever do...we left after the end of the first of two acts. An hour of sitting stone-faced, punctuated by one or two weak laughs, is not my idea of a good time. Neither my wife nor I had read anything about the play...no reviews, no plot summaries, nothing...until this morning, the morning after. After having read a bit this morning, I wish I'd had the good sense to read about it before. Oh, well.

Because the theatre is just a hop, skip, and a jump from our favorite sushi place, at least we were able to save the evening. We stopped at Kampai before the play and enjoyed a smaller-than-usual meal that was, nonetheless, enormously satisfying. Something about sushi puts me in a good mood. When I eat sushi, I smile at people and I refrain from cursing the playwright and actors responsible for bad plays.

Speaking of food, I've responded to my doctor's admonitions about my triglycerides by taking my diet very seriously this last week or so...a dramatic reduction in restaurant food, a breakfast each day of shredded wheat, lots of water, small portions, focus on fish and veggies and chicken with very little beef, etc. And no booze. I suspect my road to triglyceride-recovery will be slow, but in the process I'm certain to lose some weight, feel better, look better, and have a better attitude. I've not been watching the scales...I'll let the doctor surprise me when they weigh me next visit.

With enough time and enough exercise, one day I might be a poster boy for a weight-loss program..."Here's a picture of the Geezer before, at 231 pounds, and here's a picture after losing 90 pounds!" And there I'd be, a mere shell of my former self, an emaciated little waif, smiling and holding out my tin cup, grasping a sign in my hand that reads, "will work for free weekends."