This upcoming weekend is my first weekend off in what feels like months. It has been long enough since I’ve had a weekend without commitments that I would have to carefully backtrack to figure out when it was and I’m currently too tired to do that, which means it has definitely been a while. I also technically don’t have zero commitment this weekend, either, because I’ve got three or four tabletop things planned (four if my Friday group meets), for a grant total about ten hours of tabletop gaming. More than half of which I’m running. Plus, most of my “relaxation” plans for this weekend are about cleaning my apartment since I haven’t had a chance to do much of that lately. Not that I’m living in filth or anything. My kitchen is clean and my bathroom is as clean as most bathrooms ever get, but it’s been a long while since I’ve done anything other than spot dusting and vacuuming. So I’ve got a lot more going on than pure relaxation this weekend.

Honestly, what I really need and will finally be granting myself is permission to sleep in as late as I want while also preventing myself from staying up until 2 or later. I think this will be the first time I’ve slept more than eight hours a night for more than a single night. I’ve just been so busy, stressed out, or both that I’ve either been unable to fall asleep easily or had to wake up a little bit later than my week day time but not late enough to pass the eight hour mark. I am hoping, between that and having only easy, fun things (I’ve done lots of prep work for my tabletop games already), I’ll be able to feel properly rested by the end of the weekend. Or at least more rested than I have been lately. It’ll also help a lot mentally to not be ignoring my almost overfull bathroom trash can or my mail chair (which is back despite my attempts to put the mail somewhere else when I don’t have time to get to the non-urgent stuff).

Ideally, I’d take a day off of work to help with the resting or the cleaning, but I am saving my vacation time for a few trips I’ve got planned and need to fund those trips, so taking time off right now isn’t the best plan. I may have to, regardless, if I can’t get the rest I need this weekend, but I’m hoping I can hold out until late November since then I can use a few days of PTO to take a full week off since my employer gives everyone US Thanksgiving and the day afterwards off as a holiday. A full week did wonders for me back in July and while that week might turn into one of the trips I’ve been planning, it will not be the entire week and I’ll still have a chance to get some rest. Hopefully without a follow-up crisis or stressful event that spoils how relaxed and rested I feel.

I really wish I could take a whole weekend to do nothing but things I find restful, fulfilling, and personally enriching, but I honestly don’t think I could come up with enough stuff that’s all three to fill a couple hours, let along a couple days. I’ll probably wind up doing enough cleaning that I don’t feel anxious about it anymore, unwind with some time spent reading various tabletop roleplaying game rulebooks, and then video game escapism. Intermingled with all of my TTRPG campaigns, of course. Can’t forget about those. I might even make some kind of food that I can eat for dinners over the course of next week or some kind of tasty and healthy stuff I can make once on saturday and eat all weekend so I don’t have to cook for myself. Who knows. I’m too tired to plan any of that just yet and don’t absolutely need to until I make my grocery list, which is a tomorrow thing. Today’s extra effort is ordering new underclothes, buying more masks, and figuring out if I need cleaning supplies beyond an outside-specific broom to clean all the grass off my porch that the lawncare guy keeps blowing up there every week.

I hope you’re doing alright today and that you’re nowhere near as absolutely knackered as I am right now. Good luck with the rest of your week, too. We’re almost halfway through it (at least in my time zone).