What I do on Saturdays

Here is what I do on Saturdays.
Well, I should start with Friday nights because that influences when and in what condition I wake up on Saturday.

On Fridays, I usually have a dissertation writing deadline - a chapter or an outline of a chapter. I am exhausted.

Friday nights, my neighbors, a married couple with a four month old son, come over and we watch a movie that I have received from Netflix. The man, we will call him A., and I usually drink some wine, he more wine than I, and the woman, K., doesn't drink because she is breastfeeding. We talk for a while and then start the movie.

I usually hold the baby, C., and he falls asleep and then I fall asleep in the middle of the movie. I wake up towards the end of the movie. Neighbors return to their home, I go to bed. It is around 12 or 1am. Most weeknights, I am asleep by 11pm. I would make it earlier, but watching Colbert Report often keeps me up.

I may or may not be tired in the morning from this (wine).

I wake up between 8.30 and 9, put on some sweats, brush the teeth, and walk to the end of the driveway to pick up the weekend edition of the Financial Times. My favorite paper.

I read about half of the paper over four cups of coffee and a croissant. I have a system for reading the paper, but that will have to wait for another time, since it is a tangent, although quite interesting, I have already set the theme for this post...


The, I drive to Meijer, the grocery store, buy a coffee or tea from the Starbucks stand, and buy my groceries. This is where I buy fruits and vegetables and dry foods - oatmeal, etc. I like to be there by around 10.30, before the crowds have picked over the good green beans, and before the line at the cashier is too long and time consuming. Then, I may drive to Schnucks and buy some fish or meat, and go home and prepare it.

After lunch, I like to listen to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on my record player and then finish off the paper and have a nap. Not today because of the dissertation. Chapter Three, Methods, outline is due Friday 18 April.

I bought REM Accelerate this morning on the way home from Schnuck's at Exile on Main Street in Champaign. It is good, but not the overwhelming experience I anticipated at first listening. Their sounds still resonates with me.

I like to swim on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

It is also usually the time I vacuum, clean the bathroom, or pick up my room, straighten up, etc. Sometimes, that is delayed for Sunday.

If I go out Friday, then usually not on Saturday, but maybe Sunday night, as it is a good time to let off steam.