Come Monday...on second thought, DON'T!!!

Ever have one of those weekends when you already know by Sunday night that what you'd just love, more than anything else in the whole wide world...is another couple of days to recover from your "time off"? Yeah, Team WestEnders has come down with a collective case of TooMuchFun-itis. It's in the mild, early stages right now, as we rest our tired muscles by sinking into the couch cushions and staring vacantly at Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN (featuring our Orioles against the despised team-who-shall-not-be-named, from the Bronx--Go, Birds!)...or typing...one guess as to who's engaged in which activity? But by tomorrow morning I expect more severe symptoms to have kicked in...possibly manifesting in the form of protest ("I don't WANNA get out of bed"), sluggishness (feet dragging down the stairs to breakfast), and generalized disorientation. ("Where am I going? School? Aargh, how can it be Monday?")

Saturday started us off with the usual Soccer Doubleheader. Riley's U10s, coming off a blowout win last week, suffered a setback when facing a much more challenging team. Riley himself took the loss hard, having been asked by his coach to play goalie during the second half, and feeling personally responsible for the two scores he allowed. I think they call those kinds of situations "character building", right? (Or maybe the lesson is: it's all good when there are post-game snacks? Mmm, that's definitely the one...) Then Derek's team, fresh from experiencing their own lopsided defeat last week, took the field. Not only were they playing without any subs on the bench, so many players were absent due to injury, illness, or...other stuff...that they would be forced to compete one-man-short. It turned out not to matter, as Derek's squad went on an offensive blitz (I mean sports-related offense, NOT the mouthy-adolescent kind, thank heavens) and handily sewed up the victory. Annnnd...that was plenty of excitement for one day, thank you very much.

Then Sunday rolled around...and really, nothing says "lazy, relaxing weekend" quite like...a 5K after-breakfast run in the park, yeah? You see, a lifelong friend of Husband's sustained a spinal cord injury in a car accident several years ago; his wife organized a race, in part to help offset his ongoing medical expenses. The actual event happened too far away for us to participate, so we had instead registered anyway, and committed to doing our own "Remote 5K" in support of the cause. Thus we set off to a local trail to jog through the woods on a cool, breezy morning. We strapped the GPS watch to the fastest runner's wrist (you guessed it, that would naturally be Derek) and gave him a fabric "flag" to attach to a tree when he reached 1.55 miles, as a signal to the rest of us to turn around at the halfway point. Derek was soon a blazing orange blur in the distance, I maintained my usual steady but by no means what you'd call "zippy" pace in the middle of our family pack, and Husband very kindly stuck with Riley to allow him walking breaks when necessary. At the conclusion of the loop, Derek had taken about 27 minutes (he confessed he'd had to stop twice...to retie his shoes...); I finished second in about 29; and the Dynamic Duo chugged in at 33-ish minutes.

Having indisputably earned our next meal, we continued the festivities by honoring Derek's Birthday Lunch selection: Panera...and Baskin Robbins thrown in for good measure. (He DID win the household NCAA pool as well, so ice cream seemed as appropriate a reward as any...) Then I had to dash off for a pedicure (a pampering treatment I never, ever do, but I was invited by some girlfriends, so what the heck?) and the boys returned home...to indulge in their allotted video game time. Then for the Grand Finale: I spent an hour or so talking to a representative from the cell phone company, attempting to successfully effect a three-way-switch (my number transferred to a new device; Husband's number moved to my phone; brand new digits assigned to Husband's old phone for Derek to use. Confused? Me toooooo...)Then of course a mandatory Tutoring Session ensued, as Husband was somewhat daunted transitioning from an..."intelligence-deprived" model...to an actual "smartphone". In the midst of my providing detailed, step-by-step demonstrations for him on such topics as "linking to an email account", "storing contact information", and "operating the navigation app", I suddenly noticed that he appeared a bit forlorn. I paused, mid-lecture, to determine what was wrong. "How do I answer it when it rings?" he plaintively asked. (Sigh...) Meanwhile Derek was busy recording his voicemail greeting, which says something along the lines of "I can't answer the phone right now...'cuz I'm being eaten by a dinosaur!" (Totally not making that up. Just another example of teenagers corrupting technology for their own nefarious purposes, I tell ya...although exactly what those purposes may be, I admit to having NO idea...)

Soooo, with weary bodies and apparently overly-full brains, we bring the weekend to a close. Bedtime looms, and not a moment too soon. I can only hope that for some of us (ME ME ME) coffee proves an effective antidote to the Dreaded Monday Syndrome...is it the weekend again yet?