This week, Wednesday was a very unusual day for me, so I thought I would do ANOTHER DITL post. Wednesdays are my day off from work, but they’re frequently filled with errands and appointments. Last Wednesday I had a doctor’s appointment; next Wednesday I have the dentist. If anything is being fixed or worked on in the house, the service appointment is always on a Wednesday. Usually I pick my daughter up from school at 2:45. I always appreciate a day off from work, but the day isn’t entirely my own.
HOWEVER.
This Wednesday I had no appointments, no errands, and my daughter’s band went on a trip. They left from school in the morning, and returned at 9 pm. My husband was home for dinner (in between teaching and going to a rehearsal) but there were leftovers in the fridge for him. It took me a while to wrap my head around the fact that I had ABSOLUTELY NO OBLIGATIONS on this day.
I’m not sure when this will ever happen again. Maybe when my daughter goes to college? In three years? Anyway, how did I spend this amazing day? Read on to find out!
5:30 am- wake up. My daughter still has to be at school at the usual time. That’s okay! No point wasting a precious moment of this day by sleeping late.
I do something I rarely do, which is eat breakfast right away. I have a small bowl of oatmeal- about half of what I normally eat- and tea. I even drink out of a real mug this time!
At 6:55 we leave for school, and I continue on to the gym. Because I have time for a longer workout, I do weights AND cardio (including the Cool Bloggers treadmill workout.)
After my workout I shower and change at the gym. I eat a peanut butter sandwich in the car.
9:30- Time for my massage!!! I can get a free massage where I work once a month, but sometimes it’s really hard to schedule it. If I don’t get one in the month, I lose it (it’s not like I can save up unused massages.) Because I have such a leisurely day, I pay a little to upgrade my massage to 90 minutes.
In addition to the fact that it feels amazing (I ask for extra time on my low back and ankles) getting a massage is a good mental re-set for me. If I give too many massages without getting one, I can get so caught up in what I’m doing, I forget that, oh yes- massage feels GOOD. This is what the client is experiencing!
11:00- Now I’m in a groggy daze. But I head to one of my favorite spots- Barnes and Noble. I spend a long time browsing, reading magazines, and sipping tea in the cafe. Sarah had a post today about being time hyper-aware or time blind- this is a rare instance where I literally have no idea what time it is. There’s no reason to look at my watch at all, and I love it.
After Barnes and Noble I go to Whole Foods- the only store where you can spend $129 and walk out with absolutely nothing to make for dinner. Whole Foods is in the same plaza as Barnes and Noble, so they usually go together for me. I buy myself a drink for the ride home, and eat a protein bar (the same kind I had yesterday, which I said I wasn’t going to eat anymore… oops.)
What time IS it, anyway? Oh, 3:00. Time for reading on the couch, which morphs into a nap (obviously.) By the time I wake up it’s 5:00. Funny thing- even in the most amazing day, there comes a point where you’re aware that there is a Tomorrow. Well, darn.
I throw in a load of laundry and make my dinner. This dinner is a culinary masterpiece! At least, in my mind. It’s a combination of all the dinners I’ve made in the past couple weeks- a baked sweet potato, topped with tofu scramble, spinach, chickpeas, and tahini sauce.
After dinner it’s time to move the laundry to the dryer, wash dishes, and feed the animals (we have a small menagerie.) I pick up my daughter, and get in bed to read at 9:30.
Was this my “ideal” day? Well… no. My ideal day would probably include a long trail run in 50 degree weather, my son would be home, there might be waffles and maybe even a beer. But this was a truly RELAXING day, the kind of day moms- or, people in general- don’t usually get.
Do you ever get a day to yourself like this? What would you do it you had one?
Top photo by Sophie Dale on Unsplash
17 Responses
To borrow a phrase from Lisa, this was the perfect shouldless day! I love the flow of going from the gym to a massage to B&N to the couch to the perfect dinner.
Yes, I did think of Lisa and her “shouldless” days!
This sounds like a very relaxing day off! The only thing I sometimes miss about my old schedule working in TV news is when I had Mondays and Tuesdays as my weekend, and I was able to go to the store and not have it be crazy busy. Now I pretty much always have to go on a Saturday or Sunday, usually after my run when I’m hangry and tired, and deal with the crowds, sigh. So I think it’s nice that you get Wednesdays off (even if you usually have to fill it with appointments) but I’m sure you’d also appreciate having two days off in a row!
Yes, it’s definitely a tradeoff! At one point I did try to work Wednesdays instead of Saturdays, but my boss said no. Oh well- like you said, there are some pretty great things about having a weekday off.
Sounds AMAZING. I especially love that you started it early and had the WHOLE day to yourself. I am very particular when taking a day off for myself. When the kids were younger, I was very mindful of the fact that ~8:30-3 when they were in school is not actually that much time. So I would always make sure to pick a day that I could ideally get up nice and early to start the day and in an even better perfect world, have them have an activity or something after school to “extend” my free time. 😉
This also made me think back to when I was a child- my mom would occasionally take a day off during the week. I remember always getting excited when she would, because this meant she could come pick me up from school! (I otherwise rode the bus.) Now as an adult, I realize she would probably have preferred that I just rode the bus to leave her alone! haha. I think once I asked her to pick me up from school and take me out for lunch. lol! Never crossed my mind that maybe she didn’t want to spend her rare/special day off driving me around. hehehe!
Ha, yes your poor mom. (Or, maybe she enjoyed the extra time with you- who knows.) I agree- a day off is great, but when you have to drop off and pick up from school, it’s not THAT much time. Throw in an appointment and a couple errands, and your whole day is planned. That’s why this one was practically a miracle.
That sounds like a well deserved day! And I feel like doing some laundry is enough of a task so that the day doesn’t feel completely self indulgent – I feel like I need to at least check one thing off a to do list on days like this.
I find that when I’m not at work, I lose all sense of time – I’ll get up, take the kids to school, come home, have a cup of tea, read some of my book, scroll on my phone, write a bit, and then suddenly it’s time to pick the kids up from the bus. But when I’m working, a lot of my job is watching the clock, so I’m very aware of time.
Yes, sometimes I feel like my job is ALL about watching the clock, and I hate that aspect. That’s why I love it when I don’t have to do that.
Tea in a real mug feels so cozy, right?!?!
I can’t imagine getting a 90 minute massage? Do you talk to the person or can you just space out?
Yay for cool new notebooks!
I literally don’t know what to do when/if I have a day to myself. I am working on figuring it out by having 1 day each quarter to go try to find things to do. It’s a challenge because the Mr. works from home, so lazing around the house means I listen to his work calls, haha sigh.
I talked to the person a LITTLE during the massage- but mostly zoned out.
Yes- you need to have a day to yourself where no one is home (which sounds pretty difficult) or go out. I know! You could get a massage and then browse in a bookstore! I highly recommend it.
I honestly can’t imagine a day without any obligations. LOL. There’s always something. Your day sounds like HEAVEN, as long as you had a cat involved in that couch nap. I have a goal to take off a day from work this quarter to do absolutely nothing. I can hardly wait! (Also, this day is not scheduled yet, so…)
Alright, I hope you get your day. And, I almost put it in the post but didn’t- Muffin did NOT join me for my nap! It was the one thing that marred the day, ha ha.
What a great day – though still very full! But I’m delighted you carved out things that bring you joy.
Massages are THE BEST and I’m so glad you got to enjoy that experience from the other side of the table!
Also, if I had extra time I can assure you I would not have spent it on extra exercise, so gold stars for that!
Well, you know me- I’m a little strange like that! : ) I actually loved being able to do everything I wanted at the gym without rushing.
Awww this sounds amazing! A nap! A massage! Yay! I have a shouldless day coming up in about 2 weeks and I can’t wait. I am getting a haircut that day but I love my stylist so it’s like hanging out with a good friend! I am sure I will read and nap as well. I have learned to take my shouldless days on a M-Th. If I take it on Friday, Paul gets off the bus a 2:45 so it makes for a short day! So my shouldless day is on a Thursday.
Yes- make sure you have as long as possible! If it’s just till 2:45 when Paul gets home, the hours fly by much too fast.
What a perfectly lovely day! That’s so nice that you get to get a free massage once a month – what a great perk!
For the past few weeks, I’ve had really low-key Sundays without any plans and I consider them my shouldless days (although being single and child-free, I get a LOT of shouldless days, haha). It’s just so nice to have a day to myself with NO PLANS AT ALL!