Friday "Off"

My work schedule is one with four nine-hour days a week, followed by a "half" day every Friday.  At a previous employer, there was a similar setup; four nines followed by every other Friday off.  Flex scheduling is a nice option, and the ability to get certain errands done without having to wait for Saturday, or in the midst of rush hour, is helpful.

Some days, though, it's hard not to want to just go home and rest.

Today, I needed to go to the bank, I thought about mowing my lawn and the neighbor's, who just moved - and I couldn't stomach it.

The thing about having the afternoon "off" on a Friday is:  I've already worked well over forty hours by that time.  A full work week.  So this "off" time really is not a present or a prize, it's the hours *I* missed during the week, of sleep or of personal time, which everyone else has had by this point.  The schedule is nice, but the Monday through Thursday part isn't just like everyone else's work week.  I'm in by seven-fifteen, and it's not rare that I don't leave until six or even afterward.  When Penelope was still in a difficult puppy/adjustment period, at a tender age when she needed lots of attention - she spent all that time by herself in a cage every day, and even now that she is showing so much progress and confidence, I still have to wonder whether it's really the best gig for a baby animal.  Eleven hours alone, four days in a row, every day.  Poor kid.

So today, after some weeks of Fridays being occupied by appointments and accomplishments and this and that - I came home and, dammit, I took a nap.  My Gossy curled up behind my knees, my Penelope guarded us a few feet from the couch.

Oh, sure, first I poked around in Publisher, reworking the Stewardship document for my church (second year I'm on the committee, second year it's been a tiny bit of a crunch *smile*).  I'll send that tonight.

But, mostly, my Friday afternoon has been "really" just off.  Me and the nicest, snuggliest cat in the world.  Me and the sweetest, dearest little girl pup.  No talking in the house; a wonderful silence.

This evening, I set to some pleasing little accomplishments.  Two charms, whose post earring backs are long since broken and gone away - the first "dangly" earrings I ever remember my mom owning, and a pair I still find very beautiful - now have french hooks.  I'll be able to wear these vintage pretties for their first time in thirty years or so.  Lovely.

A charm bracelet from which two charms had fallen off.  I put on two new jump rings, secured them - now I have a nice silver bracelet with all its little chicklet baubles.  Cute.

Another earring, a long sort of hippie design, actually antique Persian enamel, on which one joint had come open.  Closed.  Wearable.  Exotic and beautiful, now wearable again.

Two lengths of black, double-linked chain, left over from surgery on a very very very long necklace - are now bracelets to match that necklace.  Couple of lobster claws, couple of jump rings.  Woo.

All this jewelry in less than half an hour.  If I'd had proper rhinestone glue, I'd have gotten to those pink earrings and that one earring with a dropped (but not lost) stone.  Another day.

And for the rest of my evening's entertainment, I'll fix the hole along the seam of that one great sweater.  Remove the inexplicable lining from the Little Black Dress, so it will hang correctly.  I may even doctor the neckline on that one.  Feeling feisty.  I'm going to take up the shoulders on the pink top I feel is too low cut to be really comfortable (and presentable for work ...).  And fix the shoulder strap on one of my every-summer-day camisoles.  If I get really bumptious, I'll fuse the hole Penny tore in my favorite old popcorn chenille bedspread, too.  It could happen, you just watch.

I like time OFF.  I can get so much pleasurable, really not strictly practical work done.  It's nice.