Ode to the Three-Day Weekend

What is better than the three-day weekend? Answer: Four-day weekend. But since the latter is not readily available, I shall take the former and run with it.

Having an extra day of the weekend is like a mini-vacation. And I usually decide to take this opporrunity as a stay-cation, even though the three-day weekend is a great time to go away somewhere without having to take off a day of work. It gives me even more, much needed time to make love to my TV/dvr and to do nothing. And as you know, those are my two favorite things to do... even though they’re kind of one thing/the same thing, but whatever.

Recently I’ve decided to get really crazy and stray from my nights of doing nothing by going out after work. Seriously, in the past two weeks I’ve only had two “stay at home and watch TV" nights. That is not to say that I don’t watch TV once I get home, semi-inebriated, on the nights I do go out. I obviously crawl into bed and go right to my dvr and I’m pretty sure I’m smiling the entire time. Sometimes I even shed a tear at how happy I am to be in my bed and with my TV. And then I shed another tear at how sad it is that that makes me so happy. It’s a Catch-22 of sorts.

One issue with it though, is that I managed to have Krunch Pizza three times in one week (that was last week) and sliders from Spitzers twice this week. What? Don’t judge me. It was all delicious. And I justify these meals because on these crazy drinking nights I don’t eat dinner and then obviously once I’m drunk (or slightly tipsy from my second, and probably last, drink) I have a great drunk munch, which takes the place of dinner and then usually makes me hate life in the morning.

So back to this whole “going out” on a weeknight thing. Don’t worry, I’m so far from hardcore it’s scary. By “going out” I mean having two drinks, maybe three if I’m feeling frisky. But I have managed to do some really fun activities that I think I’m only motivated to go to because of the weather. I went to three concerts in two weeks. THREE. That’s just impressive. One was a concert and the other two were more like "gigs" but I fully enjoyed all of them. So now that I’m all tuckered out from doing things, it’s time to talk about some possibilities to fill the free time a three-day weekend brings.


So without further ado, I bring you my favorite three-day weekend activites:

Day Drinking – this is one of the most obvious things to do on a three-day weekend. No work on Monday? Why NOT get tanked on a Sunday? Day drinking goes great with warm weather, but the other great thing about it is that it is also an excellent bad weather activity, should your glorious three-day weekend be plagued by rain. Day drinking in bad weather is a sure-fire way to turn your frown upside down… and then possibly spew some vomit out of there too. But if the weather IS nice, what are you supposed to do in nice weather? Lay in the sun? Eh, you can only do that for so long, and I don’t recommend a sunburn, my last sunburn peeled for a month straight, it was awful. Play sports? Eh, too active. Sit outside and drink with friends (or by yourself)? YES! It’s kind of like the riddle “is the water blue because it reflects the ocean or is the ocean blue because it reflects the sky?” Do you day drink because it is nice out or is it nice out because you’re day drinking… No?

More Day Drinking- And the other great thing about day drinking, is that it opens you up to a different genre of drinks than night drinking. Going to brunch? Drink a mimosa or a bloody mary. Sitting by the pool or on the beach? Go for a Corona with a lime, a Twisted Tea or if you're lucky enough somewhere where Fire Fly vodka is readily available make an alcoholic Arnold Palmer, or just mix it with water and ice. (Unfortunately, Fire Fly vodka is not yet available in the greater New York metro area. I spent 2 hours at work one day, locked in an office, calling different package stores to find out where I can get this delicious and amazing sweet-tea flavored vodka. It wasn't mission difficult, it was mission impossible. And I failed miserably)

TV/Movie Watching – if you have the luxury of an extra day off work, what better time is there to catch up on TV and movies that you’re behind on. Because if you don’t catch up, you’re not going to be able to hold conversation with your co-workers (thank God I don’t work in a real office anymore). Obviously if the weather is awesome you want to be outside (see above) but if it’s raining there is ample time to get a movie OnDemand, or even actually go to a movie in theaters (aggressive, I know), or just go through your dvr and watch everything you have. This is perfect for the third day of a three-day weekend because there are certain errands you just can’t complete on a “bank holiday”: You can’t go to the post office, you can’t go to the bank, go to a Dr.’s appointment, go to the dry cleaner, go to the shoe repairman (these are all a bunch if things that I need to do that I will not be able to accomplish in the extra weekend day). I am well versed in how to kill time on a day like that, as is every Jew who has nothing to do on Christmas.

Go Shopping- This is another good one, regardless of weather. If the weather is nice then you enjoy your stroll between stores, maybe grab some lunch outside. If it’s not nice out then you can go to big stores you can spend hours in (the day NYC gets a Target will be the day I… move out of my apartment and into a Target… or go to the Target to buy light bulbs or toilet paper and end up spending $100 on a regular basis. The possibilities are endless). But other than this just being a grand activity any day of the week, on many three-day weekends, including this one, there are SALES up a storm! If there’s something I like more than buying things, it’s buying things at a discounted price (sticking it to the man, if you will).

Smoke a Bowl- Fun for the whole family.

ENJOY THE THREE-DAY WEEKEND!!! And a special message/suggestion for the people out there who some how have today off too, making their weekend a four-day weekend: Go fuck yourself.