Maybe it was because I finally got a decent night’s sleep. Granted it was with the help of Advil PM, but I am okay with that.I mean, geeze, sometimes a girl needs an assist, especially after a long dry spell punctuated with until stirrings.Maybe it was because I still ached all over from the beating that started with last Friday’s spin on the lyra and continued all week with my constant double-dipping at the gym.Apparently, this body is not getting any younger, even though I like to pretend that it is.Maybe it was the look on my dog’s face yesterday afternoon when I was leaving the house yet again - that poor sad face which is the last thing I see in the window as a back out of the driveway and the first thing I usually see when I pull back in hours later.(Does he really stand there the entire time I am gone or does he go about his business until he somehow knows exactly when I will return and replants himself in the window?)But most probably it was simply the mountain of laundry piling up and the fact that I was down to having only my least favorite gym clothes clean.Whatever the reason, I gave myself the day off from my usual routines and expectations of productivity.
Unless I have a really good book to read¹ or am deathly sick, I don’t do down time very well.I am also pretty set in my routines – let’s see, it is on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday, so that must mean I'm at the gym. Wednesday, late day, usually don’t roll into the gym until 11.Thursday afternoons are for library volunteer time at the school.Friday is Fly Day.Saturdays are a little unstructured except for kid-related activities.Sunday morning is leave-mommy-alone-during-“The-Old-Lady-Show.”The hours between all of these tick marks on the timeline are filled with the usual must-dos to make life run on time plus general mommy taxi service at the appointed times.You get the picture.Routine seems to be the only way I can get it all done.So for me to affirmatively decide to blow it all off today was, well, peculiar to say the least.
But I am happy to report that I actually learned today that productivity is so very subjective. And I had a bitchin’ cool day!Here is what my 9-4, that precious time when the kids are in school and I can actually make things happen, might have looked like to a casual observer:
Made scrambled eggs for the dog and myself.He was clearly the true beneficiary of my day at home, so happy to simply lie at my feet as I sat at the computer for a good chunk of the day.
Submitted my daily entries for a chance to win that HGTV Dream Home http://www.hgtv.com/dream-home/index.html – oh, Park City, I could so make you happy, or maybe that is the other way around.
Found and fell in love with the word “florilegium,” and am now obsessed with coming up with a ways to use it regularly in my daily life.Suggestions welcomed.
Planned a book/lingerie/lunch trip to CharlottesvilleVA – anyone up for a road trip?On the itinerary (but I am always game for surprises!) – 1) New Dominion Bookshop http://www.newdominionbookshop.com/ which is the oldest independent bookseller in Virginia and boosts of having a unique selection of architecture and landscape gardening books.Yum!2) Derriere de Soie http://shop.silkybottom.com/because they carry FortNight (http://fortnightlingerie.com/collection/) which I love, though “I can not compete with you Jolene.”Yum!3) Lunch at the Bizou.Yum!
Stumbled upon an awesome photo online of me on the lyra with Meghan, one of my lyra instructors, trying desperately to teach me to “make the hands pretty.”The photo is on a friend’s blog http://uneviecharmante.blogspot.com/ - check out her blog, not because of the picture of me, but because she is so awesomely creative and her blog is always a pleasure to visit.It never fails to make me smile.
Laundry.Well, I do need those clean gym clothes, don’t I?
Turned a friend onto this cool site http://www.buyolympia.com/ as a potential outlet for her artwork.I just love being a matchmaker.
Worked on lyra rigging and did a little digging for some tunes for new routines, because that way on future days that I decide to stay home from the gym, I can still just go upstairs and beat the crap out of my body.
Read the paper. The piece “Finding her way home” made me cry, if only because it so pointedly illustrates the fragility of one’s everyday life and how it can all change in an instant, but mostly because of that woman’s bravery and amazingly positive attitude.http://www.washingtonpost.com/todays_paper?dt=2012-01-20&bk=B&pg=1Rhymes with Orange and Mother Goose & Grimm made me laugh out loud.
Processed paperwork for Foreign Language Experience classes, with 32 kids already signed up for the upcoming session.Yes, that was actual work, but I did it on my “coffee break” from the rest of my day.
Daydreamt of treehouses and taking over the girls’ playhouse in the backyard for my own writing studio. Okay, that was clearly the Cabin Porn influence, but someday I will make both of those things happen.Mark my word!
Discovered that it might be fun to go back to school, but only if it is at Dennis Riley's Pub and Used Idea Emporium – dude, where were you when I was studying Political Science and why can’t more college professors jump onboard this alternative lectures train http://www.uwsp.edu/polisci/Pages/Faculty/dRiley-Menu.aspx
Finally, wrote something and posted it to my own, long-neglected – yeah, yeah, okay, never quite got off the ground – blog http://queenofdabblin.blogspot.com/ .
Yep, I could use a few more non-productive days like today.
I finished this book in less than three days over the Christmas break.It would have taken even less time, but I forced myself to put it down one evening because it seemed important to finish it in the wee hours of the morning when I knew I would be awake anyway.Boy, did I make the right choice!There was something absolutely magical about finishing that book just before the sun came up.It made the entire day seem surreal and special.I can only think of a handful of books that I have loved as much as this one.Put it on your To Do list.
As I was sitting at my computer earlier today writing for my blog, I received two emails telling me with remarkable specificity that two packages had been delivered to my side door.I walked the 22 steps it takes to get from my home office to the side door and sure enough two large boxes were setting in my breezeway and the UPS guy waved at me as he was getting into his truck parked at the end of my driveway.
I have been practicing yoga for 33 years, since I was 15 years old – yes, I will pause while you do the math. I am pretty sure that the technological wonders of today do not really represent the yogic teachings of “living in the moment.”Yet, there is no doubt that the instantaneousness with which we live these days can be both helpful (it was good to know those packages, which are Christmas gifts, were outside before the kids got home from school) and distracting (it took me away from my task at hand).
But what truly took me away from writing today was the rescue of 33 miners who have been stuck a half mile under the surface of the earth for 69 days.I admit that I have been mesmerized by this event since it began last night, even choosing to miss my painting class today so that I could watch the live feed.And as each miner was reunited with their family, I lived in the moment with them, something I could not have done that without the instantaneousness that today’s technology brings. That was a distraction worth living in the moment for.
Congratulations to the miners, one and all, and congratulations to mankind, who has finally found a way to meaningfully live in the moment, en masse, in a very positive way.
