Our EOFO adventures

One of the benefits of where my husband works is that he gets Every Other Friday Off.  Several years ago, he decided that he was tired of wasting those EOFO’s, so he started planning day trips for us.  He bought a couple of DayTrip books, some maps, a guide to Texas State Parks … my beloved is nothing if not methodical and logical.  As this is when I was going through the worst of my “What do I do with my life, since I’ve spent the past 20 years being a stay home mom and now my kids are grown?” phase (I need a shorter name for my midlife crisis LOL!) he was left to planning most of these outings on his own.  My contribution was to whine that I didn’t want to go anywhere, didn’t want to do anything and complain that EOFO outings were stupid.  Regardless, he persevered.  He read in the paper that several of the mighty oak trees in Galveston had been killed by Hurricane Ike.  Rather than just cut them down, some Galvestonians decided to  turn something ugly into art, and commissioned a chain saw artist to carve the stumps into something beautiful.  So one EOFO, we went to Galveston and found a dozen or so of these amazing carvings.

Then, another EOFO, we went to Brenham to tour the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. 

 

 

We’ve also gone to Washington on the Brazos to see the historical re-enactors tell us the story of the founding of Texas.

 

 

 

We drove to Luling, Texas to eat barbecue. 

He also found a list of the Top 10 Milkshakes in Houston, so that became a new EOFO adventure. 

 

Being my husband, several of his EOFO outings involved us going to various State Parks.

 

Those, I’m not so fond of.  Alligators, bugs, sweating … yeah, not my thing. 

Then time, apathy, life, health, weather all conspired to stop our EOFO outings.  Our EOFO’s ended up being taken over by doctor’s appointments, errands, chores … we stopped going to parks and art shows and restaurants and started going to Sam’s and Jiffy Lube and Home Depot.  The other day, I found Beloved flipping thru one of his DayTrips book.  He looked up and said, “There is a minor league baseball team in San Antonio.  Wouldn’t that be fun, to drive up to San Antonio and see a ball game?”  Needless to say, he and I have wildly differing ideas of as to what constitutes “fun”.  He’s also mentioned driving to Dallas and seeing the new Bush museum … as well as driving to California and seeing Reagan’s Museum.  (Note to Beloved:  That’s *way* more than an EOFO outing.  Just sayin’ …)

Last Friday, which was an EOFO, he said, “I have an idea.”  Knowing he was wanting to restart our outings, I assumed it was something involving a State Park, or a milkshake.  “Let’s go down to the YMCA and see what it looks like.  I get a corporate discount, and they have water aerobics classes which your physical therapist said you needed for your knee.” 

I’m sorry … the YMCA?  Seriously?  Aside from the Village People singing about the YMCA, I don’t know squat about the Y, except that it doesn’t sound like an EOFO adventure.  But off we went.  I was SHOCKED.  What a wonderful facility.  They have workout machines, a pool, group activity rooms – they have staff members who literally take you by the hand and guide you, step by step, thru an introductory session.  The people who were there were a wide variety of ages and sizes and fitness levels … I was totally blown away.  We signed up for a free trial and I jumped on a treadmill (and, after only 30 minutes, crawled off) and agreed to go back on Monday for the water aerobics class. 

I don’t do “new” well, so for me, to go all by myself to a water aerobics class is a huge deal.  I almost didn’t go, but I knew my knee needed it, and I don’t want to undo the progress I’ve made.  So off I went, knees shaking, fears bubbling up (“What if no one talks to me?  What if everyone else is already friends and they don’t want me in their club?  What if I make a fool out of myself?”) but off I went anyway.  Class started at 9:00 a.m., so I got there at 8:50.  Pool was deserted.  There was one lifeguard and at the FAR end of the pool, one guy was swimming laps.  That was it.  I stood there, frozen, until the lifeguard said, “May I help you?” and I said, “Is there a 9:00 class?”  He laughed and said, “Yeah, but they won’t show up until right at 9.  Feel free to get in the pool and warm up, tho.”  I glanced at the clock … 8:54 and it was still me, life guard and lap-swimmer.  Sure enough, exactly at 9:00, the instructor and one other lady showed up … they were chatting away, obviously friends ([cue little voice of insecurity:  See?  I told you everyone would already have made friends and wouldn’t want to include me!]  Shut up, little voice!) and the teacher said, “Hi!  You must be new.  Welcome!” and the three of us got in the pool.  Within 15 minutes, 20, 25 more people showed up … all ages, sizes, fitness levels, even a couple of guys! … and before I knew it, I had completed my first water aerobics class.  And my knee didn’t protest! 

So now, Beloved and I have a membership to the Y, I have a new pair of swim shoes and I made my little voice shut up (at least temporarily).

The next EOFO is in two weeks.  I think I need to take this bull by the horns and plan our next outing.  When I let Beloved plan them without any input from me, we end up at either a ball game or a state park.  Or the Y.  (Which, of course, *DID* make me break out into, not only song, but song AND dance LOL ... poor. long-suffering husband of mine!)

So that's on my to-do list:  find an EOFO outing before Beloved does.  Because I do NOT want to go to San Antonio to watch a minor-league baseball game.