the sweet life of a southern wife: 2 day weekends

4/19/11

2 day weekends

For those of you who dont know me personally, I currently have two jobs. I work full time Mon-Fri from my home, doing graphic design for a company out of state. Then on Sundays, I work as a restaurant manager where I've been working since I was 16yrs old.

Home Office

Restaurant

As long as I can remember, Ive always had 2 jobs. Ive always juggled a hectic lifestyle. From waitressing and hostessing. To Managing and my internship. To just managing and bartending, then to managing and doing my design career. Which brings me to my main point. Hardly ever do I get a real weekend. You know, the whole Sat AND Sun off.

I constantly have friends and family asking why I continue working both jobs. My originally theory behind this was, if I always keep the restaurant as a second job, I will always have something to fall back on god forbid I was to get laid off. Then it was, "well, if Im not working then Im probably spending money, and Id rather be making money than spending it!" The fall back on this is it sometimes sucks when I dont get to go with friends to the beach or concerts on the weekends. And seeing that the restaurant is only closed on Christmas Day, I dont always get holidays off with my family. And a day to myself to relax? Whats that? never had one before. My usual Saturdays off are spent working on our house, washing our cars, washing the dogs, doing laundry, etc.

So when one of our close couple friends told us they were pregnant, with TWINS! All I heard was weekend away in Orlando for a baby shower. (I know technically not a vacation, but Ill take what I can get!) So I put my request in to both jobs. Half day on Friday at the full time job, and weekend off at the restaurant. There were about 5 of us that were going to drive up to Orlando for the shower. So we were definitely making it a fun weekend. Unfortunately, we got notice about a week before the shower, that they were going to postpone the shower until after the boys were born. She had been on bed rest for about a month or two, but now she was really contracting and her doc wanted her to be put on hospital bedrest. So another one of her friends and I quick made a care package filled with magazines, candy, Belly Laughs, portable scrabble, UNO, etc, etc, and sent it to the hospital.

Although we were all really sad about the situation and not being able to visit them, I had already taken off. This meant what? A 2-day weekend for lil'ol'me? I started planning right away. Turns out Pompano Seafood Festival was happening that weekend, so Saturday? Check. And Sunday you ask? Well my sis and bro-in-law take my niece and nephew to the beach every Sun and I never get to go because of work. Not this time. So plans were made. And of course I had to take a few pictures to document my 2-day weekend. The sun was out, the sand was hot, and the water was gorgeous!