When the Weekend’s a Little Too Long

The Romans, as I tell my incredulous students, did not have a concept of a weekend. Each months had its Kalends, Nones, and Ides, and feriae (holidays) in which the usual negotia of lawsuits, labor, and other transactions concerning the res of daily life were suspended.

While he does not talk about it, Charlie’s got an internalize sense of time. He had Thursday and Friday off from school as it was the annual convention of the NJEA (New Jersey Education Association). Its a small rupture in his schedule to have the one long weekend in early November. As Jim and I have to work, my parents visit from California.

Saturday Jim had to be at a conference and I went to see a friend, and then planned to go into New York to meet Jim and have dinner with friends. It was pouring rain for most of the day and this added to Charlie being less than peaceful easy-feeling all day: Exercise outside was not possible and he ended up spending a lot of time in the back seat of the minivan my parents had rented. Further, our black car needed fairly serious repairs (it has almost 100,000 miles on it; bought it in April of 2005) and Charlie, while enjoying the space to spread out in the buslike interior of the minivan, kept calling for the black car. He was relieved when I picked it up mid-Saturday afternoon, after which I drove to Jersey City on my way to meeting Jim.

It all added up to a lot of out of routine-ness. I called my parents while waiting to meet Jim: A dumped-over bowl of yello rice, back and forth running around. Only after I talked to my parents did it occur to me, it was the third day since Charlie’d been in school and it was time to be back there.

As he will be tomorrow, soon enough, and soon enough we’ll be dealing with Thanksgiving — but, without procrastinating too much, I’ll leave that for tomorrow.

(Sunny today—-bike ride in order.)