Some 64-Hour Weekend

Let us define the weekend as starting at 5pm on Friday and ending at 9am on Monday.  That's 64 hours total.  You'd think there'd be time in there for recharge, which for normal men my age might mean taking a nap or watching sports or bingeing on something on Netflix.  Alas, a consequence of desiring that elusive work-life balance and wanting a lot out of both sides of that equation is that leisure time winnows to almost nothing.  Here is a blow-by-blow account of this past weekend, which was a hair crazier than usual but not terribly different from our normal life:

Friday 5pm to 9pm - Spent the day driving to and from Pittsburgh for a client kickoff meeting, so these first four official hours of weekend were spent getting home from that.

Friday 9pm to Saturday midnight - Dropped my two co-workers off, got the CarShare back to its resting place, got home, had a quick bite, and then hit the computer to catch up on a day's worth of work emails.

Saturday midnight to 4am - Sleep.  Not nearly as much as I needed, after a long work week,.

Saturday 4am to 6am - Get myself together, get to the grocery store, get the groceries put away, and get the kitchen set up for the day.

Saturday 6am to 8am - Good morning, Asher!  Diaper change, chase, breakfast, chase, chase, chase, and probably some more chasing.

Saturday 8am to 9am - Off to the Y to grab a quick swim before class.

Saturday 9am to 1pm - Off to Penn campus to proctor my class midterm.  Actually one of the few slivers of leisure time, as I read a book while keeping an eye on the students.

Saturday 1pm to 2pm - Get myself home, grab a quick bite, wait in vain for Aaron to return from sleepaway camp, get word from my in-laws who are picking him up that they are caught in traffic, and decide to move on without him.

Saturday 2pm to 5pm - Took Jada and Asher to the waterfront for our company's summer gathering at Spruce Street Harbor Park.  Walking around, gorging in ice cream, and basking in the muggy weather quickly gives way to rain, and then more rain, and then a torrential downpour.  Everyone else reconvenes inside, but we head home to see Aaron.

Saturday 5pm to 7pm - Reunited with Aaron, and it feels so good.  Ah, but laundry and chores and Asher's bedtime routine awaits. 

Saturday 7pm to 9pm - So many house chores have piled up.  I hardly make a dent before crying uncle and heading to bed.

Saturday 9pm to Sunday 5 am - A solid 8 hours of sleep.  Could've gone longer but I'll take it.

Sunday 5am to 7am - Gotta grade the midterms as I'm not sure when else I will have time.

Sunday 7am to 8am - Get Asher up and ready.

Sunday 8am to 9am - Haircuts with Asher!

Sunday 9am to 11am - Get Asher down for nap, feed Jada and Aaron breakfast, clean up the kitchen, steal a 30-minute nap, wake up to Aaron saying "hey, don't we need to get going," in my disoriented state I can't find the baggy of Asher's hair that I'd saved for Amy's baby book, while frantically searching for it I knock over a whole thing of Asher's cookies, while dumping that down the kitchen sink I break the garbage disposal, and that was a comedy of errors if I ever saw one.  Mercifully, Amy takes on the garbage disposal, while Aaron and Jada are all packed up and ready to go without needing any prodding.

Sunday 11am to 8pm - The campsite is 3 hours away but of course there is traffic both ways, plus registration takes forever, plus I have to stop by Home Depot on the way home to buy a new garbage disposal.  Good news and bad news is that I miss seeing Asher as he's already asleep.

Sunday 8pm to 10pm - More work to catch up on plus other miscellaneous administrative things like paying bills and going through a week's worth of mail.

Sunday 10pm to Monday 4am - Sleep.  Could've used more.  Yet again.

Monday 4am to 5am - Pray, read Bible, get my stuff together for the day.

Monday 5am to 6am - Run, lift at Y.

Monday 6am to 7am - Asher is up and Amy is taking care of him, so I have time to shower, shave, put on my suit, and pack for the day.

Monday 7am to 8am - Amy is off to work and I hold down the fort with Asher until the nanny arrives.  There was some more chasing.

Monday 8am to 9am - Train to New York City for a day there for another kickoff meeting.  By the official end of the weekend, at 9am, I'm well over halfway there.  I may have caught some Z's on the train to make up for the lack of them over the past 64 hours.