Am I Getting Boring?

Or just older and more comfortable with myself?

Here it is, a Saturday. I used to LIVE for Saturdays because it was a day filled with fun activities, once I got past the mundane.

Sure there were random errands and tasks that needed to be done. But once finished, I played. Went to the mall or an afternoon movie. Went to the gym or for walks or jogs or long drives in the country. Then it was home to shower and get ready for a night out on the town.

Dinners of hot wings or pizza and beer with friends followed by going to hear local bands and/or dancing or maybe just hanging out at the local watering hole talking to all the regulars we knew.

But over the past few years, as friends have gotten married or had kids, our weekly Friday happy hours have turned to something we do 3 or 4 times a year. Weekend dinners are -- meet at 7, have a drink, order, eat and home well before 10. These days, I tend to go out more during the week after work than I do on the weekends.

And my Saturdays? Well, today for example, I'm getting the car's oil changed, washing it, taking recyclables to the recycling center, followed by a grand finale OF (drumroll please) a trip to the grocery store, where I need to by kitty supplies and probably will grab a steak or something nice for dinner.

Once home, I'll do the household chores (or at least a couple of them) and then I'll make my nice dinner, have a couple glasses of wine, take a bath and settle in with a good DVD or book and most likely be in bed by 11.

B--O--O--O--O--O--R--R--R--I-N--N--N--G!!!!!!!

Thing is, this really doesn't upset me or bother me, until someone I know rattles off a weekend that sounds more like a marathon event than 2 days off from work.

My friend L gets up at 7, has her house cleaned by 9 or 9:30, then meets friends for breakfast. On way home, she grocery shops, comes home, puts groceries away, yells at husband who has dirtied something that she cleaned earlier, and then she hits the shower because while they still don't have any kids, she insists that they will go out on Saturday nights.

Sunday, she's up early again, does her aerobics tape, showers and its off to one of the parents house's for Sunday dinner. After which, she finally comes home to pre-make the next night's meal and then, finally, relax. This after a week in which she meets her best friend for dinner on a night hubby is working late, belongs to a bowling league, tries to go walking a few times a week or more aerobics tapes, and, oh, did I mention she's also taking continuing ed classes?

I get tired just thinking about her schedule! And then I start to wonder --- is she abnormally active, or am I just a big, old, worthless slug? I'm starting to think the latter.

Maybe its winter doldrums; maybe its that now, I work ALOT and have a mentally and emotionally stressful job; maybe I'm burnt out from having lead too structured an existence before I was 30. LOL

See, when I first moved out of my parents house and had my own apartment, I didn't go hog wild. I still stuck to the disciplined, home routines -- laundry never piled up; ironing was done once a week; dishes were always done immediately following a meal; every surface in the house was cleaned at least once a week, whether it needed it or not. And all my friends were still single too, so of course, you still had to go out a minimum of 3X each week or be considered a loser.

But we all started getting older, and while some of us, like L don't know what to do when they have more than an hour of unscheduled time, the rest of us have decided we like down time.

Sometimes, the dishes don't get done in my house until the day after the meal; the laundry does pile up on occasion, and sometimes, instead of the major, no surface is safe, cleaning I used to do weekly, might go 2 weeks.

The former disciplined girl shudders at that and always vows that she'll do a major cleaning this weekend, and it won't ever happen again. This girl knows, that after a week of pushing papers, and playing office politics and working late -- it will. And that its okay.

The house doesn't need to be perfect, I don't need a packed social calendar and my friends and I have known each other long enough and well enough, that we don't think the other hates us if we don't go out till the wee hours every Saturday night.

I go to work every day, work hard, pay my bills, pay my taxes, make charitable contributions, and even though I no longer see my circle of friends every nite of every single weekend, we do see each other regularly. Only now, we're eating salads or grilled fish, instead of wings, and drinking one glass of wine instead of a pitcher of beer.

And we don't feel like losers if we end up staying in on a perfectly good Saturday nite.

No, I haven't grown that much older, nor have I grown boring. I've finally come to realize that after all these years, its official --- I've grown up.

I'm actually looking forward to my night in, my steak and a good merlot, and settling in with a good read.