Weekenders!

Weekends are generally not the best of times that you can expect ordinary folks to be on the net. By ordinary I mean people who have decent 5-day a week jobs as opposed to me who, in some folks eyes are on a ’permanent’ vacation. Not that I don’t have work to do. I have tons of it, up to my ears even sometimes. The difference being, I don’t go to an office, working the stipulated hours of 9-5 (to 9 for some folks I know).

I work at my rented house, in the library, or at the faculty’s gazebo. Whichever place suits my mood at the time. Being a full-time student allows me that privilege I suppose. However, having too much independence could be counterproductive as well. I am at liberty to while my time away. Not that I don’t have work to do, I have tons of it. It is just that while I am in the middle of writing something, while I am mulling certain idea, while I am waiting for a certain theory to make sense, while I am trying to make two concepts gel, I gaze too much at the laptop screen. During those times, the mind becomes a wanderer: it could go back in time, it could fly forward, or it could become wishful.

But I digress. Let’s get back to weekends not being the best of times to catch people on the net. Unlike me, who puts equal value on every day of the week (not because I don’t cherish them – unlucky me, I have to work 7 days a week), these other folks consider their Saturdays and Sundays as precious, priceless These are the 2 days when they manage to shake off their shackles and enjoy - freedom. Not the time to sit in front of a mundane monitor, clicking on the mouse buttons, punching senselessly on the keyboard scouring the virtual world. This time is better spent in the real world.

Weekend is the time best spent in either of two ways, or a combination thereof, whichever suits the purpose. Either you spend time being yourself or you spend the time for yourself. Not much difference between the two choices but let me explain. The former choice is like when every weekend you put on your dancing shoes and be Fred Astaire. Or perhaps, a more down to earth example, you stay at home and play mummy or daddy, whichever one is your preference. Get up in the morning and get breakfast ready; the aroma of steaming home prepared nasi lemak wafting throughout the house is almost enough to make the wait for weekend worth it. Watching the kids and hubby / wifey (or your brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, if you are not married, or your cats if you can’t bother entertaining people) go heartily through the repast is a pay-off itself that no corporate manager can outmatch. So you go on through the weekend doing things only available to be done on weekends – go to the zoo, bring the children for a picnic, visit grandma and grandpa, wash the kids’ school shoes. Anything that you do, that you think you do for other people, but are actually doing it because you are being yourself.

The latter choice entails that upon hearing the alarm clock going off, picking it up and smashing it up against the wall (too dramatic!) and going back to bed for a snooze until midday. Forget the rest of the world; this is the day you reserve for yourself – a day of self-indulgence. Go dye your hair, go hang-gliding, loaf and laze around the house, whatever pleases you. Fulfillment that is only available on weekends.

As for the combination of the two; I leave it to your imagination. I could give you a hint though. Turn off the alarm clock, lock the bedroom door and now there is only you and your partner. Should I say more? The kids can wait for breakfast while watching the telly, a little longer wait will make them eat heartier! And the rest of the world just sails on by.

I did tell you that my mind sometimes wanders far off, didn’t I?

So come on back Monday. The two days I am without their chatters and presence are the two longest I’ve ever known. Let these folks here return to their computer terminals at their offices where with a click of a button they can discover the Internet again. Allow them the opportunity to enter the realm of the net. Let them discover me again –I who cannot be myself and cannot do things for myself because I am missing out on weekends. Let me not be alone again in cyber-space.