Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Saturn's Day

“The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,”

Margaret Atwood

Fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t own my Saturdays. Saturdays are tribe-owned or couple-owned in my life. So any type of planning by me is out.

Saturday is named after Saturn, the god or the planet, whichever you wish it to be. In folklore, it was the preferred day to hunt vampires, because on that day they were restricted to their coffins. For me to spend the last day of the week by peeking into any coffin or hunting a vampire would not be enjoyable at all.

One thing that I do enjoy, however, is a visit to the local library on a Saturday. Now that the libraries are not funded as generously as they used to be, our local library is closed Sundays and Mondays. So Saturday becomes the best day for us to visit it.

The rest of the day depends on the-spur-of-the-moment activities. Unlike most writers in WdC, I don’t plan anything in the form of writing or reviewing for any Saturday, as chances are, should a spontaneous outing occur, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my plans. If nothing happens, then I do write and review, but that, too, is always unplanned.

If I were to plan a perfect Saturday for me alone, however, I’d start the day by checking into WdC, then with an early walk on the beach, taking photographs. As Saturn was the god of agriculture, Saturdays feel like they should be spent outdoors. With that thought, I would have a simple brunch at an outdoor café, followed by sitting on a chair outdoors inside our porch area or on the beach and reading for an hour or instead visiting the library. An alternative would be to spend a couple of hours at the Barnes and Noble’s, having a large Earl Grey Tea and Chicken Pesto Sandwich and selecting reading material.

After that, I’d like to get in touch with friends and family members and spend the rest of the day with them, having dinner at a seaside restaurant or just sitting some place outdoors like on a bench in the park, powwowing, chatting, and watching the sunset. The evening would be some TV watching, like a PBS channel, or whatever I have on the DVR. Then, some more reading or writing before bedtime would be a perfect way to polish off a heavenly Saturday.

Yet, Saturday Spontaneity seems to be the norm for my Saturdays, and at times, that turns out to be better and more enjoyable than all the planning I can ever do.

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Prompt: How do you plan the perfect Saturday?