Almost like the Indescribeable Sweetness of Summer

I spent an entire day today doing....absolutely nothing.

To fully understand this statement, you must understand a typical day in my life. I typically arrive at work around 6:00 a.m....and it's a 30 minute commute. I do not usually take a lunch break. I receive approximately 7,000 phone calls and 300 visits to my office a day. 3 of those phone calls a year have been positive. You see, I'm a principal in an elementary school. How many times have you called the principal of your child's/grandchild's school to tell them how great everything was? You may THINK it, but you call when there's a problem.

Perhaps I exaggerate on the phone calls. By one or two. But suffice it to say that recently my sister told me kindly that I was really, truly consumed by my job. I filed that away as something to think about when I had time. That was a month ago.

Yesterday was the day I remembered it and I thought about what she said. And she was right. So what could I do on my vacation that is REAL relaxation? Pure pleasure? A genuine retreat from my daily grind?

So, today, I read a whole book.
And it was a novel.
A hardback.
That I chose.
At an actual bookstore.
Wow.
This was a pleasure from my younger days...one that I could participate in without one hint of guilt. In recent years, I have been unable to complete a magazine article without falling asleep. And any books I have read in the last seven years have been required work-related book studies.

But no, not THIS day. On THIS day, I got up. I made and poured coffee. I read. I lost myself in the book. I rose from the leather recliner only to take care of personal needs and to let the dog in/out/in/out/in/out. Well, you get the picture. She's a brat. Anyway,it's a good thing because unlike when I was younger I found that I needed to move to keep the circulation going in my legs. I read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. I highly recommend it. Not the book so much, but the concept.

I'm highly committed to the concept. So much so, in fact, that I may try it out again tomorrow. I'm calling it The Inexplicable Joy of Idleness by Beverly Underwood. Catchy, huh?