The Good Life

Halley blogs about The Good Life.

“Things you should have in your life today:”

Okay, lets see if I’m living “”The Good Life”” or not.

“A nice well-cooked meal with friends or family that lasts at least an hour and a half;

I’m starting off on the right foot. Last night I cooked a meal of Pan seared Mango Snapper with stir fried Zucchini and angel hair pasta. The girls were there for dinner even though Chelsey was starving and had to eat her left over Subway sandwich rather than wait for me to finish cooking. And Lindsey’s new friend Sam was over so he joined us at the dinner table for a sit down meal. It was good.

“someone to give you a hug;”

What can I say. I really miss hugs. Definately not the good life for me.

“time to exercise;”

I’m really working on this one. I take Lindsey to the ice rink each weekday and have been watching her skate. I enjoy the time to watch her work on her skating, and it gives me some down time where I’m not running from one place to the next. But I’ve decided that is a luxury I can’t afford any more. So, I’ve taken the bike and put it in the trunk of the car and I’ve been trying to ride while she skates. In the few weeks I’ve been trying I’ve been able to ride about three times. I’ve had trouble with weather, and things to do right after skating that require I not be all hot and sweaty, and a few times I didn’t have time to get the bike in the trunk, or change clothes before I had to rush to get Lindsey to the rink on time.

And then there are the weekend yard work duties. Each week I have to mown the lawn, edge the sidewalks and do general maintenance around the yard. When I have time I try to get one additional task done each week. In the fall /winter that ends up being rake the leaves, but during the summer it is a different chore each week. This weekend was trying to trim the hedge in the back yard. It has gotten so tall that I can’t reach anymore. I get up as far as I can on the ladder and try to stretch over the top to get as much as I can. It was quite a workout. Then I have to neatly bundle all the trimmings into nice little three foot sections or the trash guys won’t take it. Even then sometimes they will only take some of it and I have to put it out again the next trash day.

So I guess I’m sort of almost, not quite good, but I’m working on it.

“time to be silly, laugh, have fun;”

It’s been a rough few months on the silly, laugh, fun front. But I hear the girls laughing and having fun sometimes 🙂

“time to read;”

I stopped bringing my book to work. My friends here are so tired of seeing that same little paperback for the past year or two that they have been teasing me and I can’t take the teasing anymore. I did get a few days of reading when we were at the beach. Does 5 days of reading time a year count?

“time to be outdoors;”

I get to be out on the weekend when I’m working on the yard. That’s sort of good.

“time to meet up with friends for coffee in a local joint;”

Before I was taking Lindsey to the rink I actually did this a couple of times. There was one day a week when the girls had a ride home from the rink and I had about 45 minutes that I spent with an old friend at a restaurant that has a cute little outdoor patio. Lately the closest I get to this is sitting on the front patio sucking down water after I finish working on the yard. So no good life right now but maybe when the girls are off to college :O

“time for work.“

No problem with that. Somehow it feels like I spend the majority of my time at work. I think that is partly because during the summer I know the girls are home and I’m not. Hopefully that feeling of wanting to be somewhere other than here at work won’t be so overwhelming once school starts back, tomorrow! Yikes!

So all in all based on Halley’s criteria I’m not quite living the good life right now. I think that I’d like to make up my own list of things that define “A Good Life” if not “The Good Life”, because, even though as my beer coozie can holder says “This isn’t the life I ordered” it is still a pretty good life. But my list will have to wait as I don’t have time right now.