mini vacation day

i’m self employed and have a home office, so i don’t have the kind of structure like i would from an office setting. it’s fantastic for my creativity and i end up being very efficient. sometimes, though, i wouldn’t have a clear concept of “work week” and “week end.” sometimes it felt like a work week that lasted one month long.

maybe that’s what it was. i’ve had a very, very, verrrrrry long work week.

i’d had one of those weeks, when i felt “off” even when everything is “on”. cass said i shouldn’t call this an “off day” but see this as a signal for me to take a mini vacation day. earlier this week, cass made me promise that within 15 minutes of hanging up the phone with him, i would get my butt out the door and to the beach.

so i did.

i drove to the beach, which was literally 10 minutes drive from where i live.

it was mid morning on a weekday, and the underground parking structure was empty except for one other car. i pulled into a random spot, and behold, there were 40 minutes left in the meter from the previous parking patron. i thanked the anonymous sponsor for underwriting 40 minutes of my mini vacation day, then put in a few dimes to give myself two hours at the beach.

i got my satchel of reading materials and a fedex envelope i needed to mail. i stopped in one of our favorite restaurants and had a light lunch. i thought i had to trudge far - possibly drive - to a fedex drop off location. i found out from the waiter that the magazine store ten steps down the resturant was a fedex drop location.

after lunch, i dropped the fedex envelope off and headed across the street to starbucks. i got a chocolate cupcake and decaf mocha. i tried to read another chapter of walter russell’s “the secret of light” but it was very difficult to eavesdrop and read at the same time. i decided that eavesdropping on the couple sitting next to me was more interesting. even if i didn’t want to eavesdrop, the way we were situated in the crowded starbucks would have made it nearly impossible not to eavesdrop.

it was a really interesting conversation, although i’m still not sure if the couple was “together casually” or “it was so good to see you! i’d love to get into bed with you in an hour” type of relationship. at one point i had to glance out of the corner of my eye, because they stopped talking for many minutes. i wondered if they stopped talking because they caught me eavesdropping even though i was looking down at my book most of the time. to my relief, my furtive glance caught them holding hands. i could only presume they were staring lovingly or longingly or lovingly and longingly into each others’ eyes. i didn’t dare confirm in case my sweeping look broke their magical moment.

the climax arrived when i heard movement next to me. the woman rose from her seat, stood up, leaned over, and kissed the man on the lips. not a loud and wet kiss, like the kind you give when you’ve been married for twenty years, but a soft and wet kiss, like the kind you give when you wonder about being with this person for twenty years.

the man thought their discussions were deep and profound, because he lightly recommended taking their relationship to a more superficial level. he suggested that they should even continue meeting up in bed in perhaps an hour (and you thought i was making up that part!).

the woman laughed one of those clear crystal laugh that a single, attractive (but smart) and very available woman can laugh. the man stood up - i think he needed to get back to work - and went out of starbucks quite casually. i only heard them say they should do this again soon. the woman resumed working on her iMac, also casually, as if she was going to see him as readily as a steady lover.

anyway…

i thought my 2 hours at the beach was drawing to an end, but i hadn’t yet gone down to the pier. i grabbed my stuff and walked down to the pier. it was a balmy day and i could hear the crashing waves against the shore. there was one group down on the beach playing beach volleyball and they were shouting and quite excited. besides them and a couple of greedy gulls hovering near a trio eating their sandwich, the pier sounded like a relaxation CD you’d buy from a new age store.

i parked myself on an empty bench and looked out at the crashing waves, and at a bikini clad woman tanning on the sand in the distance. there was no need to read or fill time with busy things to do. i was content to just sit on the bench and listen and observe.

i did this for a few minutes.

then i gathered my stuff, walked a few blocks back to the parking lot, go to my car, and came back home.

i really enjoyed my mini vacation day. (email?)