A perfect day

Halfway through January and yet to post...strong start, Dr. Z. Ah well, I have mostly good excuses.

Today I will tell you about why I love days off. In residency, a day off was a true rarity: about 1 in 6. That's a bad average even for the Rockies. Ouch. And so, those days, while also much looked-forward-to, were more of a survival mechanism than anything. Laundry, grocery, get some Vitamin D, sleep, work out, and probably happy hour, and then it's back to bed in preparation for another call.

Now with more than a day a week to work with, I can relax a little bit more. Not only that, but I live in Colorado, so even in January, my days off can be outside. Case in point: yesterday. My plans were a little thrown when my ski buddy caught the plague (maybe a slight exaggeration), but no matter. After finishing my coffee, I swapped the poles and goggles for gaiters and hiking boots and headed to the foothills.

A not-so-small amount of panic set in when I set off from the car--the only one in the lot at the trailhead--and saw a large sign warning of mountain lions. #shouldhavebroughtthetaser Instead, I gripped my camp knife knife-fight-style and sang loudly and poorly whatever songs popped into my head to warn those lions I was a-comin'. Thankfully, I saw no mountain lions, only three brother deer who did not stop to pose for my camera phone.

I managed to round trip 7.6 miles in a little under three hours, including a lunch break at the "scenic overlook". Not sure how scenic you get at 6,000 feet (it was a little ponderosa valley with a winding road through it), but at least the sun was out and I remember to pack Candy Cane Joe-Joe's for dessert. Plus keeping a decent pace meant I was plenty warm in a t-shirt and pullover, no hat or gloves needed. Did I mention how it's January?

Day not done, because what day off would be complete without margaritas on the front porch (again, January!!), homemade meatballs and almond butter cookies, and playing ninja with a four year old. Yeah, you can be jealous. Shoot, I was a little jealous and I was there! Stayed late enough to miss rush hour but still home in time to watch last week's Blue Bloods and lights out by 10. A great day.

All of this because I was just reading an interesting article about how to fall in love with someone (a different topic for a different day) and one of the questions to ask your partner is "What would constitute a 'perfect' day for you?" Well, I was going to use several of the questions as writing prompts for myself, but when I got to thinking about this, I was a little bit annoyed at spending a bunch of time planning a perfect day, because a) I knew it would never happen, and b) why shouldn't today be the perfect day? I can choose to make whatever I want out of my day. I mean, some days I have to work, some days have other things in store, but all in all, I enjoy my job, I enjoy my life, I have good friends. The perfect day is one where you get to the end of the day feeling loved, feeling accomplished, and say to yourself, "Man, that was a good day". Shouldn't every day be the perfect day? And if not, what excuse do we have besides ourselves?

Thus my day off yesterday shone, and today too, for that matter. Not that you need a play-by-play of all of my days. Cause what a waste of time that would be. For both of us. Now go enjoy your day!