expect the unexpected

Weekends are my favourite part of the week. Of course, there’s the whole sleeping in and not having to go to work part that always makes it such a relief to get to the end of the week but what I really love about weekends is the extra time to do fun things and the adventures that often ensue. While weekdays usually include errands and exercise, the weekend is often reserved for friends, family or fun and sometimes you never know what that will mean. For me, this weekend involved all three and while I knew it would be a good one, I couldn’t have predicted that I’d be as good as it was.
You know those days or nights when you’ve got good plans but if someone were to ask you about them, you’d say it was nothing special? And then you go out, have more fun than you could have imagined and look back and laugh at all the outrageous outtakes that made your night memorable? That pretty much sums up my weekend. I spent the last few days visiting a good friend a few hours away, and while I was really looking forward to the time we would spend together, I could never have imagined that such simple sentences would unleash a series of unforgettable adventures. When the owner of the pub we went to for a little live music casually told us there was a bowling lane out back (and he wasn’t kidding!) our night took a turn for the random as we suddenly found ourselves setting up own our pins and crossing our fingers for a strike. And when we were asked if we brought anything to throw by the cashier of the movie theatre where we went to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show, we shouldn’t have been surprised by the rice, toast and decks of cards that were launched through the theatre. They might seem like you-had-to-be-there moments but they were the moments that made my weekend. They were unexpected, a little strange and a lot of fun.
I love those nights – nights that need explanations with stories that couldn’t be scripted. It’s those nights that are often the most unforgettable, when one unexpected event turns into two and suddenly you can’t remember the last time you had so much fun. It’s those nights that start out okay and end amazing with a roller coaster of ridiculous all in between. It’s the unexpected fun that if you tried to plan for, you’d fail. It’s the rush of being in the right place at the right time without realizing that you’ve got all the ingredients for the recipe for fun. So if anyone ever tells you that there’s a bowling lane behind their bar, believe them. You never know where the night will take you.

What unexpected moments have made for memorable nights for you? What’s your favourite thing about the weekend?

you snooze, you lose?

With the weekend beginning in only a few short hours, I am looking forward to one very important thing…sleeping in! I can’t tell you how much I hate to hear my alarm go off every morning. It always comes too soon and I wake up thinking that my clock must be broken because there is no way it is already six in the morning. Although I can’t remember what time I woke up in high school or how it affected my day, I’m sure I would have wanted an extra few minutes of snoozing to keep me awake during some of my snore-worthy classes. I guess that’s why I found this CBC article so interesting. A study performed at a Rhode Island boarding school found that 30 more minutes in the morning produced happier, healthier and more alert teens. While the study may have had some limitations, I won’t argue that I would love an extra thirty in the morning to hit that snooze button.


I wonder if the same could be said for adults…are we getting up too early and depriving ourselves of sleep to try and make the most of our days in the office? Would we have more productive days if we just got a little more shut eye instead of trying to make up for it on the weekends like I am about to do? (Saturday morning sleep in, here I come!) I could go for a later start time and few minutes shaved off my day so that I can get home to my family at the same time…all while taking a little better care of myself and paying more attention to what I’m actually doing in a day. But only if my pay didn’t change, of course! Think they’ll go for that? Come in later, don’t stay longer and get paid the same amount? I don’t think I’m in a rush to bring this great idea up to my boss just yet…