As I sit here listening to the clock tick in an otherwise quiet house, I’m marveling at the fact that I took the day off — most of it, anyway — and the world didn’t end.
Aside from being on an island beach somewhere, this day was probably as close to ideal as it could have been. After I got the conference call out of the way, I went for a runwalk (note the emphasis on “walk”) because I was still weighed down by the morning’s pancake breakfast. Better to meet my minutes requirement than not do anything at all, right?
After my run, I went shopping. My mother made a huge deal out of birthdays, with tons of gifts and food. She was a champion shopper, usually finding ridiculous deals; every box I opened came with a story. “I found this on a clearance rack. It was originally $189, but I found it marked down to $11.27 and then I had a 40%-off coupon….” After her death in 2004, I started shopping for a “mom gift” each year. The rules are as follows: the gift must either a) have a ridiculous on-sale story, or b) be something that I would never buy for myself under normal circumstances.
They met all of the "mom gift" criteria.
This year’s winner: a pair of open-toe faux snakeskin shoes. I have a very odd-sized foot, long and narrow, and shoes of any kind are hard to come by, let alone “fun” shoes. All my life I’ve aspired to own a pair of animal print shoes, not for any reason other than the fact that they were as impractical and impossible to come by as anything I could imagine. Today at Nordstrom Rack I stumbled on this pair, originally close to $100 MSRP, on sale for $35. I didn’t even hesitate. They are the epitome of the “mom gift” concept.
A perfect summer afternoon.
The rest of my day was spent offline, sipping iced tea on the patio at Peet’s. The beauty of California is that 85 degree days are perfectly lovely in the shade. Over the course of three hours I read the last part of Delivering Happiness, and wrote surprisingly extensively in my notebook. Yes, that’s right, I wrote: all fun stuff, all with pen and paper. When was the last time I did that? This was the big revelation of the day: many ideas come flowing out when you minimize the external stimuli.
But wait! There’s more!
Tonight, my husband and son took me out for dinner at Stacey’s Cafe. Owned by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, Stacey’s is amazing for one other reason: gorgonzola bread pudding. Yes, it’s the world’s most decadent side dish. It accompanied a filet mignon and a cherry drop martini for a meal that likely completely blew out my week’s quota of fat and calories that was worth every bite!
In less than eight hours I’ll be back online and back to the grind, but the mental break was fabulous. I should do this more often, maybe even monthly. The world will continue to spin.
That sounds like a delightful day. And the shoes are fantastic!