A Little R & R

While physically, there is no doubt I am my parents' daughter -- personality-wise, we are worlds apart.

My parents are doers -- in the sense of, they ALWAYS have to be DOING something. Spending an hour or two reading several newspapers, or parking on the porch for hours with a good book, or even spending a rainy Saturday afternoon watching movies -- well, in their minds, you're not really doing anything at all.

I swear, relaxing for my mother is canning vegetables or baking homemade bread the old-fashioned way -- no bread machine in her house! Or, washing and ironing and rehanging drapes.

In a few hours, they get more chores done than I do over an entire weekend! And it sometimes makes me feel lazy. On any given saturday, they're up at 6 and by the time I'm having breakfast, around 10 or so -- she's cleaned the house, done laundry and is invariably cooking something.

Dad has paid the bills, run errands, washed the car and either mowed part of the lawn or trimmed the hedges, etc.

Me, I've woken up and maybe gotten through half of the newspaper and am on my third cup of coffee.

I'm not exactly sure when I got this way. When I first moved out, I kept the habits I had learned in their house. I was up relatively early on weekend mornings. By noon, my apartment was cleaned, laundry was drying and I was on my way out the door to run errands. Somewhere along the way, I gradually switched those industrious habits for more laid-back ones.

While still feeling some guilt, I have to say -- I enjoy taking my time with my morning coffee and perusing the papers. I love to read and over the past year or so, was so overburdened at work that I didn't have the time or the desire to read for pleasure. And I love catching those old flicks on Lifetime and TLC that I happen across on a lazy weekend afternoon. I mean really, what woman can not stop and at least watch part of a Meg Ryan movie marathon weekend, or the film version of a Nora Roberts novel??? Not this girl.

So, I try not to be too hard on myself when I let my laziness take over and instead, allow myself the guilty pleasures. Like today. I took yesterday and today off. Yesterday, I met an old friend for lunch, went to a local farmer's market, then met another friend for drinks and dinner.

Today, I slept in, enjoyed my morning coffee and paper, talked on the phone and spent some fun time on the computer.

I took these days off because I wanted to relax and unwind. And so far, that is exactly what I've done. So for me, definitely two days well spent.