I don’t usually take time off unless I have a trip planned, I prefer to use my time to travel . When I initially scheduled vacation this week, I thought we might take a backpack out west. After all, we spend a lot of time Rocky Mountain dreaming and it has been 5-6 years since we have been out west.
As spring became summer, it became clear we would not get to the Rockies this week so I cancelled all but two days to save the time for something else. Today, my first of two vacation days (attached to a 3 day holiday weekend) has been glorious! Makes me wonder why I don’t do this more often.
Unfortunately, I still got up before the sun; John is not on vacation today and had to go to work. I had to get moving too. Today is housekeeper day (bad timing for vacation day) and I didn’t want to be around when she showed up and feel like I had to stick around and help. Soooo, I got out for my run around 7:00ish, which turned out to be a perfect time for this day in late August.
I ran around the neighborhood for 3.1 miles, my usual route. It was not a comfortable run. I am having some piriformis issues, which I believe have been caused by too much hill running, pedaling my bicycle in too high a gear or both. This is not my first go around with piriformis syndrome and I don’t like that I have become complacent with stretching and rolling. The torture tools below have been pulled out of their corner and I will be diligent in rolling my legs to attempt to head off several months of PT and reduced activity.
After running, I packed up my “stuff”, (computer, magazines, notebook and anything else I might need) and left the house. As it turns out, all I really needed was a credit card. First up, Panera Bread Company for breakfast. Great artichoke-spinach soufflé, but really, really bad coffee! I know this about the coffee but I forget and besides, I am a sucker for the soufflé.
I spent most of the day shopping. Chico’s was offering a 30% off regular priced items and I purchased couple of pants and scarfs. Found some great travel pants on sale at Belk and picked up some birthday gifts for John at TJ Maxx. Also picked up a travel guide for our upcoming trip (hint is in the picture below). The trip is weeks away and we still haven’t set our return date, figured out hotels OR purchased airline tickets . Hopefully before the weekend is over….
Sometime mid afternoon I remembered why I am not a shopping fan. Getting in and out of the car in the heat and in and out of clothes in the dressing room is exhausting. Also, I was shopping without a plan and that can be expensive. Happiness is walking away with only a few purchases! Happiness x 2 is getting home before John with an hour or so to sit on the porch and thumb through the latest issue of Vogue, but not before I wrapped up John’s birthday presents. We are doing some travel shortly so he got the presents a couple of days early.
With or without a vacation day, I hope you have had a good one! Thanks for reading.
