The importance of the "nothing weekend"

Just this past weekend, my SO (Significant Other) and I were privileged enough to experience a glorious occurrence, which I fondly refer to as a "nothing weekend."

A "nothing weekend" is just as it sounds- a weekend where one is required to do nothing. No previously agreed upon commitments or obligations. No "plans," if you will.

A weekend in which we are required to do nothing and we completely acquiesce and in fact, "do nothing."

Since moving back to our mutual home state of Ohio in the spring of last year, these weekends have been few and far between because, well, FAMILY. Now that we once again live within driving distance of our relatives and friends, we are of course required to be participants in the continual onslaught of birthday parties, graduation parties, bachelor and bachelorette parties, wedding showers, baby showers, weddings, and holiday gatherings.

Which is great, don't get me wrong. We really missed all of our friends and family the three years we were living in Portland, Oregon. But, if I'm being honest, I do miss the nothing weekends of our Portland life.

There were so many! *blissful nostalgic sigh*

In Portland, nothing weekends were like a tradition. Sometimes due to the fact that we would go out on a Friday night with friends, many drinks would be consumed and little sleep would occur, and thus the rest of the weekend would be transformed into us being lazy on the couch. Sometimes nothing weekends happened just because that's all we wanted to do- lay around and be together. ROMANTIC.

In Portland we were able to have "hardcore" nothing weekends, where we literally just laid on the couch all weekend, ordered in food, and watched movies. I can't remember the last time we had a hardcore nothing weekend, but it was definitely in Portland.

This past weekend definitely qualifies as a nothing weekend, even though we technically went somewhere on Sunday (not hardcore). Even if it was just to drive to my parents to lay on their couch and eat and watch football.

Saturday we did absolutely nothing. On the couch ALL DAY.  We started watching Man vs. Food in the morning and consequently experienced intense cravings for chili dogs, which resulted in a Sonic-run to pick up chili dogs and chicken fingers. Then we watched "The Mummy" for the thousandth time because that's what you do when "The Mummy" is playing on tv (seriously, who hasn't seen "The Mummy" at least a thousand times?) Then we watched "The Bourne Ultimatum" for the same exact reason, and honestly, can you watch any of the Bourne movies too much? Not possible.

After watching movies we've seen a bajillion times, we began binge-watching Dexter on Netflix. And this binge-watching is still going on by the way. And is likely to continue every night for many years. Because we are only on Season 1.

Yes, nothing weekends consist of a lot of mindless television watching, and also, FOOD. Lots and lots of deliciously unhealthy food. For instance, after consuming hot dogs and chicken fingers from Sonic on Saturday, we partook in the traditional football-watching meal of chili and beer on Sunday. Only, I consumed irregularly large amounts of both. And then I wanted Taco Bell afterwards. Why? Because I wanted to eat Taco Bell while binge-watching more of Dexter. Nothing weekends are indulgence incarnate.

And I guess that's the point of this post. Yes, nothing weekends are indulgent and unproductive and frankly, not that attractive (showering is for quitters!). But we need them. Not all the time, obviously. But every once in awhile, we need to have weekends where we aren't worrying about which social obligation we have to go to next, or what's still left to do on that master, life-long, to-do list. We need to have weekends where we don't have to get dressed or count calories. It's called recharging. Sometimes you need to plug yourself in at home and stay there.