Friday night I went out with family for Father’s Day – Amy’s sister was in town from Philly, so it was a special occasion. The two dad’s in the family were treated to dinner at Kiku’s, a fine Japanese hibachi place in Gainesville. I had been uncustomarily hungry throughout the week, so Friday night I finished up three other plates of food besides my own.
I spent Saturday morning/afternoon with Balthazar. A typical Saturday. We went swimming at some point in the day, which usually means I went swimming while the boy threw rocks at me in the lake. This time it was different. We did the usual rock throwing arrangement for a while, but I actually convinced him to come into the lake with me. That was a load of fun and he really enjoyed it. I’m hoping to do that more often so he won’t be afraid of the water as he gets into swimming lessons at school. Later that day I drove to the south side of Atlanta – not typically known for its friendly culture – and shot a wedding (video). The wedding was all over the place culturally, but entertaining. It had one of those Pagan/Native American/Jewish/Creole/Middle Eastern themes going on. You know. That was a five-hour gig involving the outdoors and sweat. It wasn’t until I got in my car to leave and it started raining that I finally stopped sweating.
Exhausted, I mentally prepared myself for Sunday. I was due in Athens by noon Sunday for Athfest, a music festival held annually in Athens. Amy came along to have some time with me and support the endeavor. We joined two friends there and hosted Kidfest’s (Athfest’s kid-centric events) drum circle for the third year now. That gig is a blast, but it was another complete day of sweating. Our hands are incredibly sore too, but that’s pretty much what 6-hours of hand drumming does to you. After dinner, we didn’t leave until 8:00pm, and after picking up the boy from the in-laws, we weren’t home until after 10:00pm. I finally got to bed around midnight and started fresh and early-ish this morning for work. Bleh.
In retelling this story I find it remarkable that the weekend was filled with as much work as any other day and wonder when I had anticipating relaxing. The thing is, this is on par with many moments of free time that we encounter. They’re always seemingly filled with some form of work or another. I guess when we’re doing work that we *want* to do, we’re relaxing…a bit.
The Green Street Pool is open Saturday nights from 7:00 or so until 10:00. Sometimes I take the small child and we just play in the water as opposed to real swim lessons. The problem I see with swim lessons is that they are too structured and there is not enough time and emphasis on just enjoying the water and having fun. You guys should grab the boy and join us sometime. Green Street Pool is all over the place culturally too.