Waaay OT - Workaholic seeks advice on required day off
My organization's Fiscal Year '12-'13 ends June 30th. Over the course of the past year, I have been extremely busy and as a result, did a really poor job of using my PTO. I find myself stuck with 2 extra days I have to use (today and tomorrow) or else I'll lose them come July 1st.
The first half of today has been excruciating. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing on a weekday when I'm not at work (and when my GF and other friends are all working). I beg you, MGoPopulous, give me some ideas so I don't jump off my balcony out of boredom.
A little background may help. I live in Phoenix. It's 112 today so my desire is to keep it indoors, especially since I golfed and got a wicked burn this weekend. I don't drink alone. It's been so long since I've been unemployed that I can't remember how to pass time on my own. So those things considered, help!!!
Edit: Thanks to all for your great suggestions! I don't have enough time to do everything suggested, but that's better than having too much time with no ideas! Even those of you who contributed snark, I appreciate that - it's part of what makes this place so wonderful!
find highly interesting M football info worthy of posting here on MGOBLOG.
This was actually my original intent, but after surfing the web for a few hours and finding nothing I thought was really groundbreaking or interesting, I gave up on the quest for M-related info and instead threw myself at the feet of the MGoProleteriat.
chimed in with advice on my thread, I'll chime in on your thread. I have been effectively unemployed for a few months, and one of the ways I found to suck up a good amount of time is to practice my language skills (and read books, but it might be hard to get the book you want within two days, etc., etc.) If there was ever a language you wanted to practice, or used to know, and want to bone up on, this site I've been using, Livemocha, has lots of communities around those languages, so you can find native speakers to practice with. My Spanish has really improved, at least in written form. If you want to actually learn a new language (maybe hard in two days), then I have heard good things about this site called Duolinguo for the more common Western ones.
It doesn't happen much now that I have kids, but on these occasions, I will go with a movie marathon or a marathon of some television show. Do you have a gaming system with a goodly variety of sports games? Those help me pass the time as well, especially ones that you have to interact with, such as with the Wii or XBox Kinect.
Another possibility, if you enjoy cooking, is to use some time for experimenting with dishes. When my wife and kids are gone, I sometimes will basically turn the kitchen into a laboratory and renew my search for the perfect marinade or whatever. You could also use the time to do general maintenance around the place - I find that I am much more productive on any to-do list when people are not around to interrupt me.
I've actually had this situation. Since my kids moved out of the house, I have more free time. So here are some suggestions, in no particular order, some concrete, some not:
1) I'll send you some of my work. Enjoy.
2) Try creative writing/art. If your job is research/reading intensive, like mine, you might find letting out creative juices to be wonderful. I actually finished a first draft of a novel. It's been amazing, and given me insight into myself.
3) Look for a dance class, or something you thought you'd never do. Probably won't happen during the day, but doing something out of the ordinary is useful.
4) Meditation. Okay, I admit this is boring. That's the best thing about it. After I found myself alone without kids, it took me a while, but I went out of my way to allow myself to feel lonely and/or bored. These can be useful feelings. Don't run from them by going to the nearest bar (though I enjoy a good libation from time to (frequent) time myself).
5) As mentioned by numerous folks, a tug never hurt anyone.
would have said like Piano or something I think I would be on board, and writing a novel is Boss. But dance.......?
It is amazing for making you aware of your own body, chance to listen to cool music, meet people and once you get over your own self-consciousness, it's fun as hell. As an aside (not relevant to OP), I've also met some amazing women at dance classes, including my girlfriend.
This might be the best setup for a video ever.
may have hit it on the head with self-consciousness.
I don't dance. I don't even like to be in the room when other people are dancing. I think maybe I feel I am already aware enough of my own body and don't want to subject others to the same horror.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this excange of internet chatter.
Bored? Go Dance. Not listed last, but as the 3rd idea.
Dance, bro?
Men Without Hats. SSSS-AAAA-FFFF-EEEE-TTTT-YYYY
Horror thinking about people dancing.
... you love them. No one is around forever. I was reminded the hard way on Tuesday (lost my Stepfather who was essentially my father for nearly 30 years as my biological father died when I was 7).
My 3 year old daughter said on Father's day "I want to see Granddad." Something in me told me this was extremely important so I put down our moving efforts, found my phone, and skyped with Granddad for an hour. He was gone two days later.
I thought this somewhat relevant because Granddad was my introduction to sports. He was a huge ND fan but still loved to go to college hockey (we started going in '84, the year Red started coaching at Michigan - Yost wasn't nearly so nice), pro hockey, and many other sports.
RIP Dr. David Dolan
Alright, first you have to admit that there is a higher power and that you have no control over your working.
After that, you golf. Since you are not going to golf and will not drink alone, you can either pretty much post on here or catch a House marathon on USA.
Hang out w/ Manti's girlfriend.
and Phoenix is a large enough city that there's probably plenty to do in climate controlled places that locals could suggest, and you've got established hobbies already, but why not teach yourself a stupid human trick like how to juggle or do ridiculous yo-yo tricks? You'll be occupied for an hour or two and your family can pretend to be impressed later.
Head down to Casino Arizona or Lone Butte (my personal favorite Phoenix area Casino) and gamble a little while you kill some time. There will be plenty people there and most all of them will be alone, so going there by yourself would only be weird or creepy if you tell your friends that's what you did with your day off.
I'm sure Don Draper would like to get a drink, Roger.
Look on the bright side. Some of us can't find jobs. Despite applying to an endless number of them.
Sorry to hear that. I don't want to go off topic here, but have you ever looked into what is involved for a person of your qualifications to come to Canada to work, or do you have no desire to head that far afield? I only ask because when I read your original thread I did a little looking around these parts and there were some jobs available (not that I know what you are really looking for, but I gave it a go anyway).
I would be intersted...only I'd like to have an offer in hand before i committ to moving up there financially
Cooking is a great go-to for me. Decide what type of cuisine you're in the mood for and then spend about an hour looking around for a recipe that sounds amazing to you. There are hundreds of fantastic cooking blogs, some even have step-by-step pictures for you to follow along, and there are many good recipe websites as well.
Then head out to the store, buy all of the ingredients, and it'll probably take you at least an hour to make a truly great recipe. And the payoff is obvious.
I want to be clear to start that I have no problem with this thread at all...I'm more jealous than anything. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had ten minuntes to myself that weren't previously booked weeks in advance.
I have a 100 year old home in the midst of renovations, four soon to be five year olds and a wife who has no problem piling things up in "to do lists" for those rare times when I'm not at the hospital.
If I had the time you have on your hands for the next two days I would take a stab at fixing my jet boat as I haven't been able to get it on the water yet this year and I'm pretty sure it's a problem with the carbs. Since I'm not a mechanic it will take me some time to research and study the manual before I feel comfortable taking it apart and figuirng out what's wrong...So if you have a jet boat that has a fuel problem you might want to try that. Or you could always come over and fix mine if you find yourself at a loose end!
Good luck on your days off though. Hope you find enjoyment and relaxiation in some degree.
Ding ding ding - we have a winner! Called and scheduled a 90 minute massage for tomorrow morning at a nice local resort. I'll make it through today and have that to look forward to tomorrow.
Thanks to all for the suggestions, many of them I'll log and use if this situation comes up again.
Make a homemade rub and barbeque sauce, light up that grill, throw some wood chips on the fire and spend the next 8 hours smoking some ribs. if you're that averse to drinking alone, make some iced tea to sip on while you occasionally check the temperature. its an activity thats easy but enough to keep you busy, and wife will enjoy having dinner made when she gets home.
Pick a TV show you've always been curious to watch but never had the time, and go marathon a whole season or more depending on how many episodes the season is. If not available for streaming or on netflix streaming, check your local library. Many local libraries have good selections of tv seasons. Based on your Mad Men avatar and your comments earlier that your prefer cerebral entertainment to summer blockbusters when you were discussing movies, i'm sure you're already current on that show, so here's some suggestions in a similar vein (although you've probably seen many of these):
Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Sports Night (a two season show with 30 min episodes, you can probably do the whole run in 2 days easy), Lost, The Shield.
Or pick up a couple movies on DVD from your local library or rental place and check them out. Head on over to IMDB.com and look at their top 250 films and find ones you haven't seen yet and rent some of them. IMDB top 250 can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top?ref_=nb_mv_3_chttp
I was going to say head out to a DBacks game, but then I remembered I've got tickets for them in DC later this week. So here's another suggestion: lunch at Blue Adobe Cafe. Then head for a movie. After the movie, go to a dayspa and get a massage (and maybe some balm for your sunburn). After the spa, it's time for dinner. Head to Pizzeria Bianco. If there's too much for dinner, take the remainder home for lunch your next day in the office.
Besides the fresh toppings, I find no value in this establishment. The dough is hard. Maybe I am just too hung up on Chicago style pizza... I like lots of toppings - including cheese.
Then again, you mentioned going to the spa... so obviously you and I probably will never agree on anything.
Drink, masturbate, fall asleep. Repeat. Doesn't have to be in that order.
If you were in Iowa you could be strom chasing. That would be a neat hobby to pick up. Sh*t has been a monsoon and now tornado warnings for county south of here. More flash flooding...yay.
Hmm... Watch This Is the End in a cinema in the morning, when movie tickets tend to be cheaper; then stay at home and watch Game of Thrones for the rest of the day.
That's what I did with Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones.
I'm surprised that no one mentioned this yet. The scenery along Mill Ave in Tempe is world class. Now I realize that it's summer semester and it's 114 degrees. But.. a nice stroll around lunch time, with a burger and a beer under the misters at Gordon Biersch... Not a bad way to kill a few hours.
Too bad you didn't ask BEFORE your time off. I highly recommend a couple days in Denver/Fort Collins/Boulder. So many breweries. Plenty of outdoor activities. A flight from Phoenix is not bad, and it sure is nice to get out of this heat.
You could always take a trip up north to the mountains to get out of the heat. Hang out in Sedona or Flagstaff if you need city streets and activities. Have you visited Canyon Lake, Saguaro Lake, or Lake Pleasant. I've rented boats out on Lake Pleasant plenty of times.
Since you are sunburnt, I'll skip the hiking spiel. So you are then left with indoor activities. Bowling, movies, try a new restaurant. Some of the museums around here can be entertaining.
As for me, I like beer. I highly recommend taking a cab to a location that has numerous beers on tap. I like the Hungry Monk in Chandler, the guy who runs it is from Livonia I believe. I also like Four Peaks brewery... they always have an interesting food special. Wednesdays they have cask conditioned ale, my favorite. I swear I'm going to get out to Ashley's in Ann Arbor next year.
I wish I had some extra time off. I feel like all I do is work. One of these days I am finally going to get out to Lake Havasu, down to Rocky Point, and out to Monument Valley.
Read, "Gone Forever" by Dianne Fanning. It's a gripping, detailed true crime story about a husband that killed his wife in Texas. My brother is mentioned several times in the book (they used his real name) because he attended a party at the victim's house hosted by her a few days before she disappeared.
It was the last time people saw the wife and the husband's odd behavior was noticed by the guests.
Buy an old house. You'll quickly forget what having a spare free moment feels like.
You have a wonderful opportunity to take a two day trip to L.A. The airport is nice and ez to get around and has shuttle buses just outside to take you to the other bus lines that run throughout the greater L.A. area. That city offers so much and has such an interesting history that buring two days would be about just perfect. Santa Monica offers Venice Beach right across the street from downtown and the weather is so un Arizona like you will love it. ^I cannot get paragraph breaks for some reason so the ^represents such. Hell, you could fill up two days easily just doing tours- I can hook you up on that- cheaply and see some of the most beautiful topography in the world. You can take in the ocean, mountains, Rose Bowl and it's all only a matter of getting on the correct bust line. There is a great little bar in W. L.A., an area known for it's high prices, called the Lost and Found, with Midwest prices and great down-to-earth people. ^You could probably do a round trip air fare for around 2 1/2 and about 80.00 a night - not peak season- for a nice motel room. ^Glad I never enjoyed your problem throughout my working years, but buddy take it easy and start using some of those days. I don't know how your time and attendance is set up, but start out by just taking a few hours off here and there, maybe get out on the course during the winter time, etc., and you might be able to eat up time in that manner in the future. Good Luck.
That's probably my favorite backpacking spot ever. Way less crowded than Sedona and just as beautiful. An ex and I camped on a big flat rock right on the water, went skinny dipping at midnight, etc.