NiceMemes

I retired young (38 years old). I'm now 42. When I was working, I always looked forward to the weekends. It was my time to get out during the day and enjoy some sunlight, get some personal errands done, and maybe do something fun with my time off.

Now that I'm retired, weekends are the worst. Everyone is off work, so everywhere I go is packed with people. If I want to enjoy my day out in public, I prefer the weekdays now. Everyone's at work for most of the day, so I can enjoy a quiet, peaceful day out like OOP.

There's nothing quite like going out for a meal in an empty restaurant. No time constraints to eat and run; you can just sit and relax and eat at your leisure. I can easily spend 2 hours just chilling, catching up on news on my phone, eating at my own pace, and just enjoying the scenery around me.

Or going out to a park and just chilling on a bench or grassy slope with a good book. There aren't dozens of people out exercising or playing in the park. It's mostly just you and nature.

Watching a movie mid-day on a weekday is fun too. It feels like you have a whole movie theater to yourself. No lines at the concession stand, food is prepped and ready right away, no crowds trying to get tickets or push their way into a theater, and no annoying movie-goers to bother you during the film. You might get unlucky and have a couple others in your showing, but they're rarely bothersome.

I'm a night owl, so I'm usually awake all night and then sleep all morning. So I don't even wake up until the afternoon, then my first meal of the day is usually sometime in the early evening. It's fun to go out for "breakfast" in the evening. Especially if you get a classic breakfast meal. (Eggs, bacon/sausage, pancakes, etc.) There's no one to harass you about your meal choice or odd meal schedule.

I will say that I miss the pre-pandemic world. A lot of large businesses were open super late, or 24/7. Ever since COVID though, most businesses close up early, and good luck finding anything open all night unless you live in a major metropolitan area.

I used to love shopping at Walmart in the middle of the night. It's nice and quiet and I can get all my shopping done without running into another shopper. 3 AM was peak shopping for me. Now they close at 11 PM and there's usually people packed in there until closing time.

Even McDonald's is closed all night now. That used to be my go-to if I was out at night and needed a quick meal. Now no restaurants are open all night. I'll be lucky to find a gas station with an open convenience store where I can get a microwave burrito at night.

So I end up stuck at home for most of my awake time normally. If I don't leave the house as soon as I get up, there's a chance I won't have time to accomplish much that day.