I'm gonna!
As I threatened in my obligatory "What do you think about the past year, and what are you thinking about the year to come?" post - and no, I won't be bothered to hyperlink to it, it's not like it's hard to navigate, this half-assed blog - here is a post about something that made me happy.
And as a bit of background, I decided upon this new effort mostly so that I would have a better record of happy times in my life. All too often, blogs are just used to air out things that are annoying. And that's fine. Really. But what happens when you decide to look over a blog as a record of past events? You get a distorted view. So, you know, for the next time that I'm feeling tortuously despondent, here's something to pierce through the otherwise impenetrable fog of dreary unhappiness.
Today, Sunday (the 22nd), was an excellent day. Now, I had offers to see numerous friends. There was a tea party (shut up). There was a football game. There were probably other things, too. But what did I do? I eschewed the invitations of my friends to go off and read. To sit. To drink coffee. To enjoy the day as it was. To listen to music. And it was excellent.
Don't get me wrong - I love my friends. All of them. Without exception (generally). In fact, I go to somewhat great lengths to make sure that I can still see my friends, no matter where they might live (generally). All of them mean more to me than I'll never know how to communicate. And yet, today, a true day of leisure, when we have all the time to hang out, and talk and laugh and revel in our friendships, I turn away and instead read in a coffee shop, lost in a universe of iPod playlists and articles from the Economists. Why?
I value my personal time. I spend much of the week meeting demands on my time. I have to get to work by 8:52 or I'm considered late. I can't get up to leave until 5:15. When I get up for lunch, I have 60 minutes in which to return. There might be a copy job due back to me at 10:30 AM sharp - I had better be there to receive it. An attorney might need something before 3:00 PM. even then, after work, maybe I have to get to a store by 7:00 PM, before they close. Maybe I have to run errands, but make sure to be back by 8:00 PM so that I can catch the latest episode of LOST. And, don't forget, I had better be asleep by 1:00 AM, or I'll be uber-cranky the next day. My days, more often than I'd like, are dictated by deadlines and obligations.
Don't get me wrong - I don't see hanging out with my friends as obligations in quite the same way. I don't mind it that I have to hussle in order to make it to Moby Dick Society on time. Quite the opposite, even. I don't mind that I have to meet friends for dinner by 7:30 PM. And so on.
Just the same, in opposition to this, isn't it wonderful to not have anywhere to be? To not be on any schedule? No one expects you at a certain time, nothing will fail to occur if you don't make it on time, etc. There's no timetable to adhere to. And so, today, it was just like that. Today was a unique day among most when I could do exactly what I wanted and when I wanted. So I took advantage.
I got caught up with magazines that had been piling up. I learned all sorts of factoids. I drank lots of coffee and actually got super wound up (which wasn't so much fun, but whatever). I... I took my time. I didn't do anything terribly exciting, but I took my time doing nothing and it was excellent.
And so today was excellent, and I wanted to record that in some way. More days can be excellent, just like this one. I hope all of my friends, loved ones all, also had a great day.
-dan
email me
As I threatened in my obligatory "What do you think about the past year, and what are you thinking about the year to come?" post - and no, I won't be bothered to hyperlink to it, it's not like it's hard to navigate, this half-assed blog - here is a post about something that made me happy.
And as a bit of background, I decided upon this new effort mostly so that I would have a better record of happy times in my life. All too often, blogs are just used to air out things that are annoying. And that's fine. Really. But what happens when you decide to look over a blog as a record of past events? You get a distorted view. So, you know, for the next time that I'm feeling tortuously despondent, here's something to pierce through the otherwise impenetrable fog of dreary unhappiness.
Today, Sunday (the 22nd), was an excellent day. Now, I had offers to see numerous friends. There was a tea party (shut up). There was a football game. There were probably other things, too. But what did I do? I eschewed the invitations of my friends to go off and read. To sit. To drink coffee. To enjoy the day as it was. To listen to music. And it was excellent.
Don't get me wrong - I love my friends. All of them. Without exception (generally). In fact, I go to somewhat great lengths to make sure that I can still see my friends, no matter where they might live (generally). All of them mean more to me than I'll never know how to communicate. And yet, today, a true day of leisure, when we have all the time to hang out, and talk and laugh and revel in our friendships, I turn away and instead read in a coffee shop, lost in a universe of iPod playlists and articles from the Economists. Why?
I value my personal time. I spend much of the week meeting demands on my time. I have to get to work by 8:52 or I'm considered late. I can't get up to leave until 5:15. When I get up for lunch, I have 60 minutes in which to return. There might be a copy job due back to me at 10:30 AM sharp - I had better be there to receive it. An attorney might need something before 3:00 PM. even then, after work, maybe I have to get to a store by 7:00 PM, before they close. Maybe I have to run errands, but make sure to be back by 8:00 PM so that I can catch the latest episode of LOST. And, don't forget, I had better be asleep by 1:00 AM, or I'll be uber-cranky the next day. My days, more often than I'd like, are dictated by deadlines and obligations.
Don't get me wrong - I don't see hanging out with my friends as obligations in quite the same way. I don't mind it that I have to hussle in order to make it to Moby Dick Society on time. Quite the opposite, even. I don't mind that I have to meet friends for dinner by 7:30 PM. And so on.
Just the same, in opposition to this, isn't it wonderful to not have anywhere to be? To not be on any schedule? No one expects you at a certain time, nothing will fail to occur if you don't make it on time, etc. There's no timetable to adhere to. And so, today, it was just like that. Today was a unique day among most when I could do exactly what I wanted and when I wanted. So I took advantage.
I got caught up with magazines that had been piling up. I learned all sorts of factoids. I drank lots of coffee and actually got super wound up (which wasn't so much fun, but whatever). I... I took my time. I didn't do anything terribly exciting, but I took my time doing nothing and it was excellent.
And so today was excellent, and I wanted to record that in some way. More days can be excellent, just like this one. I hope all of my friends, loved ones all, also had a great day.
-dan
email me
2 Comments:
i totally love days where i don't even know or care what time of day it is. when i have no one to meet and nothing to do.
there's a certain "fuck yeah" feeling that comes from saying to onesself "what time is it? oh.. oh that's right.. I DON'T CARE!"
aaah good times.
PS- putting a hunk of gorgonzola in a hamburger=heaven. you should try.
i know, it's like running away on a very small scale.
And dude? I know burgers. I was doing your cheese-inside-the-patty thing before I knew how to take a dump.
And if that's not appetizing, then I don't know what is.
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