i have never in my life had a weekend that was simultaneously packed full of fun and was completely relaxing at the same time. probably because i typically go out of the way to spend most weekends basking in my aloneness catching up on my reading or tv watching. not this weekend. this weekend was full to the brim with activities and people.
friday night after getting off work (an hour late) i rushed off to meet a friend in Saugatuck so we could listen to our favorite 80s cover band rock the tent at the kick-off celebration for the venetian festival. i love Saugatuck. i don't get there nearly as much as i'd like, but whenever i do, it makes me happy. and the band didn't disappoint. they'd added a lot of great songs to their sets from the last time i'd seen them and my friend and i danced like crazy for a couple hours before heading back in GR to meet up with some other friends. after an hour or so hanging out with them at stella's, i headed home to get some shut-eye so i wouldn't be completely zombiefied for my lunch with another friend on saturday.
(now i've had several people ask me why i picked Saugatuck to spend my friday night at instead of Grand Haven where the coast guard festival was kicking off. the coast guard festival is by far a bigger, more popular festival. leaving out that i really went to see a band, the fact that the coast guard festival is bigger and more popular is exactly why i would skip that festival and head to Saugatuck instead. instead of dealing with a large number of stupid, annoying people in Grand Haven, i dealt with awesome middle aged people who also love 80s music in a community that fully supports and is largely populated by the gay/lesbian community...a community that is, in my opinion, much less annoying to be around and as a whole, kinder....and if i'd in Grand Haven instead of Saugatuck i wouldn't have seen the perfect dance partnership of a modelesque woman in a sailor outfit dancing with the flaming older gent dressed in white shorts, open hawaiian shirt and red loafers.)
saturday, i slept late and then met up with a friend for a long overdue lunch. i'm horrible at getting together with friends regularly. i love my alone time and find it easy to let months go by before i realize that i haven't seen people in months and months. now we'd been trying to plan this lunch for nearly 2 months and it took that long to find a 2 hour time period we could both be free, but with one brief exception, i hadn't seen this friend since she was 6 months pregnant and the baby is now about 3 months old. needless to say, it was great getting a chance to catch up with her. and thank you to her husband for taking care of the three kids so we could have a couple hours to catch up.
the rest of saturday was spent in my favorite pursuits...visiting my favorite bookstore and the library, followed by a long nap, a yummy dinner at my favorite restaurant and then most sleep. all that sleep was in preparation for my sunday activity.
growing up, i spent all summer on a camp sitting next to a lake. you'd think because of that, i'd have spent a lot of time in the water, on boats, doing fun things like tubing/skiing and such. you'd be wrong. i did get to do some swimming (almost always late at night), but rarely got to participate in other fun water activities because i worked on the campgrounds so when all my friends were boating, i was scooping ice cream and washing dishes. don't get me wrong, i LOVED that job, but i did miss out on what is a pretty important part of summer in michigan because of it. so when my friends asked me friday night if i wanted to go tubing with them on sunday afternoon, i was hesitant to join them. i was talked into going though and i do not regret that decision at all.
sunday afternoon we all drove to a little rental place on the muskegon river, rented our tubes, hopped on a bus to be taken to the launch point and after a spending a few minutes tying all our tubes together and to the tube holding the cooler of cold beverages, we set off on an 10 mile trip down the muskegon river. the trip down river took about 3.5 hours and was about as relaxing as anything can possibly be. we talked, enjoyed the sun, played the ABC game and just enjoyed the water. i would have floated for another 3.5 hours and still wanted to keep going. after getting back i hung out for awhile with a new friend spending time getting to know him (he's dating a good friend of mine and possibly renting a room from me soon) before heading home.
it was possibly the perfect weekend. i great time with friends, good music, fun on the water and still plenty of relaxing alone time.
can we do it again next weekend guys?!
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