While I am on the topic of metamorphoses, I'd like to mention the MAWP, pronounced just as it appears, is a ritual I began to practice over the last year or two. It involves doing little to nothing on weekend evenings other than eating out, and often going to bed between 11 PM and midnight, or even earlier if planning to wake at the crack of down for a morning athletic event.

The MAWP is quite a change from the rituals of my twenties. My early to mid twenties involved the habit of staying out until 2 or 3 am, imbibing large quantities of drink, frequenting the less finer watering holes across town, coming home with clothes reeking of smoke (not from my own habit, but from the low-quality atmosphere surrounding me). Then sleeping late and waking up feeling absolutely like crap. That I blamed on drinking, but later found out during a few evenings of not-drinking-but-breathing-smoke-secondhand, that the smoke is the main contributor to the Saturday morning suicides of non-smoking bar-hoppers.

My mid-to-late twenties involved less frequent visits to bars and more frequent attendance at parties held at the private homes of young adults, who most likely had acquired professional jobs paying enough to secure a mortgage for a first home. There would be cookouts and coolers of bottled beers, and crawfish boils and impromptu, sucky jam sessions with guitars and tambourines. And morning life was much improved, since the raspy-voice, leather faced smokers would partake of their nastiness outside on the porch. (Can you tell that I REALLY don't like smoking?) Nevertheless, life was still a continual series of time-wastage hanging out with professional wastrels. What was particularly disconcerting to me was that many of these people were in their thirties and forties, still drinking to excess until 3 am on weekends, not having much to say for themselves in terms of personal growth or progress. Was I to spend the next two decades of my life in a vicious cycle of drunken nothingness?

So, I changed my weekend ritual. I started doing more exercise activities and found a very large local community of athletes who do the same thing. By the time Friday rolls around, I'm usually too tired to throw down. I've learned that sleep is important for my mental and emotional well-being, so I like to stay well-rested on the weekends. Many times, I go to bed early and get up early so that I can ride my bike in the morning. I still hate getting up early and probably will never like it. I like to sleep later on Sundays (9 am-ish) before church at 11 to give myself a little gift of relaxation before the work week begins again.

I'm still very new at finding a good balance in my life. Still making mistakes and then (over)correcting for them. I hope I eventually figure it out. Currently, though, I enjoy lazing around on the sofa on weekend nights, falling asleep at some obscenely early hour for a twenty-something. Removing the extra non-essentials, like dressing to the nines and spending a bunch of money on drinks and talking about blah-blah-blah with random acquaintances, makes it much easier to go back to the basics and do what makes me happy. Being in my thirties so far has been EONS better than being in my twenties. It's when I stopped caring about what other people think and started doing whatever it is that I want to do. That is, being an enthusiastic participant of the MAWP.