My partner works for a local non-profit that puts on a couple of well known and well attended festivals in Iowa City each summer. One of the festivals centers on art, while the other centers on music. The latter just finished up. Both festivals run for an entire weekend. The first one over the course of the first weekend of June, and the second over the first weekend of July.

More importantly for this post, this means I have two weekends to myself. It’s not just that my partner works the entire weekend. Rather, she vacates the house and sets up shop in a downtown hotel from Thursday to Sunday.

So, I have two weekends per year of (largely) pure free time.

What to Do with a Free Weekend?

So, how do I spend the time?

Well, I’m a regular volunteer at the first festival. I volunteer with something called ’emerging artists,’ meaning that I help run an art show for 16 to 25 year old artists. So, I actually spend quite a bit of time on site at the festival in the first weekend of June. But this still leaves me with plenty of solo time. Plus, I don’t volunteer much at the July festival.

Often, I find myself sitting down and watching an entire TV show or series of movies. That’s one way to relax on a free weekend. Classical films stand out as a good choice. In past years, I’ve watched the entire Godfather Trilogy, Hunger Games series, and Star Wars series.

Obviously, as someone who writes a lot, writing stands out as a good choice. An empty house for a weekend makes for a great writing retreat. I always have a few ideas for essays or short articles bouncing around my head. It’s nice to take a full weekend, order my thoughts, and put some of those ideas down on the page.

A third option is taking walks in new areas or new parts of town. At some point over the last 5 or 6 years, I’ve explored nearly all of Iowa City. But I haven’t seen all of it. There’s always some new nugget to find.

This Year

I suppose that brings us to this year. Since the July festival just happened, what did I do this time?

Well, as I’ve said, I’m wrapping up my recovery from a foot injury. Long walks in new parts of town wasn’t going to be the best choice. So, yeah, I focused on the other two things. I watched movies. I got some writing done.

You’re currently reading one product of that weekend.

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