Dolce Far Niente

Los Angeles, California

I have always looked forward to Saturdays, though throughout my adult life they have taken different shapes. My late husband, Tom, worked Saturdays for all of our married life. At first, since my employment offered weekends off, I spent many a Saturday puttering around our apartment; then later, in our first house doing odds and ends of homemaking. There was a program on a local FM radio station that played the original cast recording of a Broadway musical each week, with commentary about the production. It was a regular part of my Saturdays, just as later, A Prairie Home Companion became a regular part of our Saturday evenings.

Around the mid-eighties, my best friend, Cindy, and I started taking classes at Jane Fonda's Workout in Encino. We both clearly remember our first class there on Saturday morning, when we warmed up to Soft Cell's Tainted Love (which is the first song on a workout playlist I still utilize). We worked out together on Saturdays for years, at one point joining a walking workout class that met to warm up at 7:30 then took us walking through local, hilly streets. One of those maps took us down a cul-de-sac where we looped and walked back. A few years later, Tom and I bought a house on that very street where we lived together for twenty years.

I still enjoy my solitary Saturdays at home puttering around and attending to a variety of home things. But I also enjoy spending Saturdays with girlfriends. When Lynnette comes to visit, Saturday is our last day together before she leaves early on Sunday morning. And, though Cin is not as available as back in our Fonda days, we do try to schedule one Saturday a month to spend together. And that was last Saturday.

Saturday evenings have had their own rituals. With Tom working every Saturday, he found it hard to race home and out to meet friends. But many of our friends were only available on Saturday evenings. So, we split the difference, and booked out every other Saturday to stay home, cook together, and listen to the aforementioned A Prairie Home Companion. I looked forward to those Saturdays as much, if not even more, than the Saturdays when we were out with friends.

When Joel and I were first together, I missed spending Saturday nights together. Joel works on Sundays, and at that time he started work at 5:00 AM. So, Saturday nights together were, and still are, not feasible. But I still make my Saturdays special. I have a cocktail while cooking, and I cook something special and usually meat-centered. I don't eat meat every night, and I never eat meat on Friday, so Saturday is a good time to roast pork chops, or sear a filet mignon or lamb chops. It's Dodgers' season, so I get to watch the game that evening. I no longer mind being alone on Saturdays, neither day nor night.

But, this past Saturday, I already had plans with Cin when I reached out to my friend, Susan, to see if she wanted to meet for dinner the weekend before. She was booked but suggested the following Saturday, which gave me plans for both Saturday day as well as evening. Generally, more than I want to do, but I persevered.

Cin and I met and traveled together to Gott's at The Farmer's Market, the Original Farmer's Market at Fairfax and Third in the city. These days when you mention The Farmer's Market, people want to know which farmer's market? There are neighborhood farmer's markets everywhere in the LA sprawl. But the original, where I often went as a child and where my mother would buy her fish for our Christmas Eve dinner, is the only farmer's market I go to regularly. Cin's and my plan was to have lunch and walk around a little. But, no, we ended up at Banana Republic where we were talked into re-upping our credit cards for an additional 25% off the storewide sale of 30% off. We bit.

Bags stowed in Cin's car, we headed back to the Valley and home, where I had an hour before I needed to meet my friends, Susan and Beth, for dinner. I spent most of that hour on the phone with Lynnette, telling her that I didn't feel like going. I really wanted to stay home. But, I quickly changed clothes, rearranged my hair which was mussed by trying on tops at BR, and headed out.

We had a lovely dinner, then followed Beth home to her new apartment, where we hung out for some time. This is like high school, I remarked, remembering all the afterschool days when I would hang out at my best friend's home, lounging on the bed in her bedroom, talking about the boys we liked, and the girls we didn't. As simple as the night with Susan and Beth was, it had a lovely impact on me. Before we said good night, we asked each other what we were doing the next day. Susan reported that she was having a pajama day, which sounded like a stellar plan to me.

I didn't stay in pajamas all day, but I made it past noon before turning to workout clothes so I could get in a workout. Besides that, I puttered around my home, putting things back into place and rearranging objects that bring me some joy. I thought to get into my closet and cull out some clothing to make space for recent purchases, but I never got that far. As evening rolled around, I made myself a gin and tonic, roasted a pork tenderloin and brussels sprouts, and watched the Dodgers game that I had recorded from earlier in the day. Truth be told, I didn't really accomplish much over the weekend, except spending time with good friends, one of whom supplied See's candies and Baskin-Robbins ice cream while we hung out at her house. Their company provided the sweetness of doing close to nothing. Or as the Italians say: Dolce far niente.