Staycation: 'Ten Minutes in a Rational Manner'

As the official start of my third Pete Retreat (the Staycation), I allowed myself to veg most of the day. I watched Dynasty on YouTube (Alexis is plotting with Rashid Ahmed to ruin Blake's China Seas oil deal!), caught up on Facebook, did a mini chest work-out, and generally wasted time around the house. Not very productive, but it was good to mellow out.

Later, I went to dinner with a fairly new friend. We drove there in his Thunderbird convertible. It was a beautiful sunny day, and it felt fantastic to fly down back roads from Sugar Grove to Geneva with the top down! Especially important bit of enjoyment since summer is winding down; won't be too many more days like this to revel in.

Dinner was great. Good food, good cocktails, and a long conversation about nothing ordinary, just about life and what matters in it. It definitely helped that we're just starting to become better friends. This means that all my favorite 'stories' - which my longer term friends have already heard - are brand spanking new! Sweeeeet!

Came back home and called Jim to find he'd arrived safe and sound at the hotel. Then I ate microwaved Matt's chocolate chip cookies and tried to watch a movie. Unfortunately, I selected a movie with subtitles (I can't stand dubbing), and I was way too tired for that. So I went to bed, feeling like I'd kicked off this rather unconventional Pete Retreat in good form. Not bad!

But this morning, I decided I needed to ensure I was making good use of my time off. In Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, after a very serious scandal almost ruins the family, Mr. Bennet admonishes one of his 'very silly' younger daughters: "No, Kitty, I have at last learnt to be cautious, and you will feel the effects of it...You are never to stir out of doors till you can prove that you have spent ten minutes of every day in a rational manner." To make sure I exceed Mr. Bennet's rather low bar of spending ten minutes of each day in a rational manner, I put together a list daily activities that should help me keep focused on the things I wanted to enjoy doing during this Staycation:

1. feed Fermi
2. blog
3. watch Dynasty
4. clean desk, pay bills (ugh! what could be more rational than this?)
5. bike
6. work out or practice martial arts
7. drawing
8. piano
9. writing or reading
10. whatever else I want to do
11. meditate

Hopefully this will do the trick. As you can see it is only 8AM, and I am already at point 2 on the list. Not bad.

Now I have to post this so I can watch more Dynasty...I think this is the episode in which Dominique Devereaux comes to Denver!