Musing about treats

After talking to jendaby and deltagrl this weekend about how people deserve to treat themselves sometimes, I got to thinking. When was the last time I treated myself to anything? When was the last time I actively went out and did something new purely for fun? When was the last time I bought something purely for fun?

I honestly don’t know. I can’t think of anything. Which makes me realize my life must be pretty boring, or perhaps it’s just that I am boring.

During the week I get up, go to work, come home, hang out with jendaby and the kids, have dinner, give our daughter dessert and then get her ready for bed. Most nights after that I check my email and then write. Some nights I read or watch a movie, usually if jendaby needs to do her work. Once a week our friends come over to game. Once a week (though we missed a week or two) deltagrl and justcomeinalone come over for dinner and a movie. Sometimes deltagrl comes over to just hang out.

On the weekends I sleep as late as our daughter will let me (usually between eight and nine), get up, we all wash up and get dressed and go downstairs, and then we spend the day together. I check email and write a bit in the afternoon when our son is taking a nap and our daughter is watching a DVD. Sometimes I putter with house stuff. Sometimes we go grocery shopping or to HomeDepot, or both. The nights are basically the same as during the week.

So really, outside of work and watching the kids, what do I do with myself? Go online, write, read, watch movies, game, do minor home repairs. That’s about it.

Jendaby and I are hoping to go out more once we get used to our new schedules: our daughter going to preschool, our son going to bed when our daughter does each night, and jendaby’s new freelance work. That will be nice. We can go to dinner, go to a movie, etc.

But that’s the two of us. What do I do for myself? And what do I ever buy?

I stopped buying comic books a while back—too expensive to justify for such brief entertainment and half the time I’d go weeks before getting around to reading them. I don’t buy books—I already have a stack I haven’t read yet, and the few books I do still specifically want are on my wish list for birthdays and holidays. Same with DVDs—I never buy them myself but I often get them as presents. I buy new clothes only when I need them. I buy lunch during the week, but that’s a necessity—not buying it but certainly having lunch. I’m not a big music person, and what CDs I do listen to are mostly from friends or belong to jendaby. I have a slew of action figures but they were all either presents or thrift store/garage sale finds and they already cover the back desk in my office.

The last thing I clearly remember buying for myself that I knew I didn’t need but wanted anyway was a sword. And that was at I-Con two or possibly three years ago.

So, a question to anyone reading, which can be taken both generally and specifically: What should I do to treat myself? In general, what do other people do to treat themselves? And in specific, is there anything you think I should do or get for myself? Because I really can’t think of anything.

If this all sounds like a complaint, it’s not. I’m not whinging about my life. I have a good life, filled with love and laughter. I love getting to spend time with my family and with my friends. I am content enough with my job and happy to be writing. I just wonder if I should be treating myself in some way, and if so what that is. When we were in Chicago, for example paintersam and I got a bunch of different local root beers to try, because we both like good root beer. That was definitely a treat, and though jendaby did try them later it was really for paintersam and I. So it doesn’t have to be anything big. It just has to be something that’s for me.

Another nice long weekend

Had a nice long weekend.

Thursday deltagrl and justcomeinalone came over for dinner (General Toa’s chicken!) and to watch The Commitments (“F*ck you, you fat f*cker!”). A good time was had by all. :)

Friday was my last short day—ah, alas, the end of summer publishing hours! How I shall miss thee, half-day Fridays! Though I don’t mind being able to get here a little later in mornings, and leaving half an hour earlier at night again will be nice. We didn’t game Friday—people busy, out of town, etc.—so after the kids went to bed jendaby did some more freelance work (she’s such a hard worker!) and I watched a movie (not so much on the hard work!). Oh, and I went grocery shopping, which is nice and quiet at 9pm on a Friday night.

Saturday was more hanging out, relaxing, and jendaby doing some work. I also played with the inside of the family room window—I’ve been having fun filling in the gaps between the new window frame and the wall with various pieces of wood, like a Chinese puzzle box. It looks a little odd now, because of the varied pieces, but it’s nicely filled in and once I seal them all and then prime and paint them or plaster and paint them it’ll look really good. Deltagrl came over that evening to hang—yo, ’sup, girl?

Sunday was another quiet day. Did some general cleanup, watched the kids, hung out, relaxed—I did do a little revision work on a novel and have all but one bit finished, so I wasn’t a complete bum, at least.

Yesterday (Monday) we had friends over: deltagrl, xochitl42, and mook. Jendaby was grillmistress as usual and did her usual excellent job: hamburgers, hot dogs, and kielbasa, yum! I made sweet potato fries, which weren’t as crunchy as usual (I soaked them a bit longer than normal) but were still tasty. We also had salad and, later, ice cream and peach pie. This was the start of our new Supernatural campaign, which I think went well. We wound up playing until around 11, 11:30.

Deltagrl watched the kids for us in the morning, because I had to go back to work (argh!) and jendaby had to report for jury duty. Fortunately they took pity upon jendaby and sent her home. Yay! This means she can take our daughter to her first day of preschool!

Let’s see, what else is going on? I had a brief scare with the shower early last week because the ceiling was damp again, but either that was residual or the extra grout touch-up I did helped because it’s stayed bone dry the rest of the week. I still need to clean up the ceiling a bit, clean up some of the shower tiles, and add a touch more grout in a few places just to be safe, but otherwise I think we’re good.

Got word back about a story pitch—not as positive as I’d hoped but still positive. I have some work to do the first half of this month, and I’m talking to people about various other things as well.

Work is work. ‘Nuff said there.

Our son is now weaned and sleeping in his crib—he does cry some nights when he wakes up, but once or twice he’s actually slept straight through. Yay!

FaceBook is incredibly addictive.

I’m still a bit tired, though not terribly so. But I’m happy these days. Life is good.