The DIY Five-Star Weekend that Made Me Love My Life Again

There’s still plenty of time to throw yourself back to the carefree, 80’s-baby freedom you crave. It’s still Fat Tomato Summer, where our mission is to experience what is real despite the plastic filler, rogue AI bots of it all.

We cannot change the world. But we can change the small ways we move through it.

This brings me to last weekend, in which I accidentally perfected the concept of weekending. I didn’t go anywhere exotic or do anything extravagant. It happened right here, in my ordinary life, while I was still clawing at my arms, tripping over a torn-up kitchen floor1, and chasing a teeny-tiny cold.

By Sunday evening, I felt resurrected. Rested. Content. That bleak, hollow feeling had faded. I felt real again.

That outcome is worth studying. Any social scientist worth their datasets will attest that in order to be considered successful, an experiment has to pass the replication test.

Here’s my five-star weekend analysis, submitted for your review.2

After scrambling to get last Friday’s Substack published, a feat that always shocks me with the amount of time it takes, we ventured into town at 8pm to shake the week off and ran into friends at a favorite local spot. They scooched into our booth, where we stayed for several hours, covering topics both central to the human experience and deeply unserious.

I’m grateful to live in a walkable city with people who aren’t afraid to “impose,” who seize the moment (it was their anniversary!) and squeeze in. For all the ways we resist inserting ourselves or asking for too much, cultivating trust over time has been one of the most significant factors in building a rooted life where I feel known and loved.

If you crave IRL connection, now is the best time to start building it. Wander around your community. Pay attention to who you run into. Practice extending last-minute invitations. Keep it simple.