kestrel

Prompt 071: Top Five Weekenders

[Note: This prompt begins the section entitled, "The Weekend."]

71. Who are the top five people you'd like to spend time with on the weekend and why? How often do you actually get to hang out with them and what activities do you participate in when you do?
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I'm glad they clarified this as "people," otherwise I likely would have mentioned some pets in the mix here. However, I'm still keeping this short due to privacy concerns.

I enjoy spending time with my mother. In typical times, I would visit the family once a month, chatting with my mother most of the time while there. In recent visits, she and I had been playing board games together. Late last year I visited and brought my laptop and a microphone, and I was asking my mother about her past history. She told me about her many years in the healthcare industry and how it had changed in the nearly 50 years she was practicing in some capacity. I think it's important to record past experiences, particularly from people much older than me.

I also enjoy spending time with my brother. He lives in a house where my mother lives in the in-law apartment on the lower floor, so it's convenient that I have a chance to visit them both when I have a chance to travel. I have a feeling my brother sees me as a "pressure release valve" or something like that. I typically see him and his wife both overwhelmed and exhausted, with three kids and a rambunctious dog. Typically we chit-chat about whatever's on his mind, though topics oftentimes shift to telling my the latest news about my sister, who's turned into a constant financial burden on our mother for perhaps the past 10 years or so. He and I also like playing board games together, and we support each others' habits with occasional gifts of old board games from our youth.

Speaking of board games, I have a good friend who is the "leader" of an informal playtesting and general board-game group that's met for over 10 years or so. This pandemic has been the only major disruption in their monthly meeting schedule since the early 2000's. Most of the time, obviously, we're hanging out to do something board-game related, but we've also visited the cinema, had meals at a restaurant/arcade near his home, and even went mini-golfing.

Probably the oldest friend of mine in the town where I work is a lady I used to live with. She and I crossed paths first in music circles (while I was managing a non-profit arts venue), then further in activist circles. She's just a shade older than me. We worked together for a time, I rented a room in her house, and generally we've stayed in touch for maybe 15-ish years because we complement each others' company well. We have early morning breakfast talks about every month. She's currently working remotely in New Mexico, two time zones away.

I have a friend in Yonkers, New York whom I've never met in person. He and I first connected as fellow video game hobbyists. We still stay in touch. He's a high school teacher and shares with me some of his projects, trials, and tribulations. We are of similar age, share a lot of the same values, and provide straight talk when it comes to playtesting and bug-hunting. We have excellent discussions about philosophy and politics.

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While I was typing this, the lady I dated in January - March of last year sent me a text, "Why did you think to check up on me?" I sent her a brief message maybe a month ago or so, to see how she had been faring during the social distancing thing. She runs the equivalent of a food truck, but for fashionable clothing, and the summer is her prime season for sales. I'm concerned for her, as well as the fact she lives in a rough section of Baltimore.

But that exchange we had was like a month ago. And it's currently 11pm. If it's no emergency, why bother me now? I don't want to consider dating anyone for like, another 90 years.