My days are numbered...

"(Sigh, Deep Breath) Remember when..." 


It might be the fact that I know I have less than one sabbatical month left, but I find myself running between two schools of thought; what life will be like post sabbatical AND how to make the most of the time I have left. 


I try to make each day count, but today was just a great and ordinary day apart from either sides... No, I didn't hike/carry a dog 6 miles up a waterfall mountain or watch the sunset at the coast or cross anything off my life list. 


I just woke up from a full nights sleep, met up with a friend at a cafe, and over a Spanish Latte (made with frothed condensed milk) chatted about life/families/faith for 4 hours! I know Candace and I didn't mean to spend 4 hours chatting and had we known that we would whiz by the lunchtime hour with our gabbing we'd probably have chosen something a little more substantial from the pastry selection. And it was one of those conversations where you have a few hours to catch up on what's happened in the past few years of our lives. And boy did we. At one point the guy, tapping away on his laptop, whose table was way too close to ours anyway, got up and moved two tables down. Probably for his own good... but then about 45 min later we drove out the second laptop laden guy who occupied the seat afterward. I didn't care...well for a second I cared, during the moments when we were sharing crazy family stories or lessons learned in counseling...I wondered... I mean for all I knew this guy sitting next to us could have had his headphones on mute and was just faking the head bob to his techo music just to get some juicy juice stories from us... maybe... maybe not. Eventually we finished up, checked all the missed calls we had, and parted ways with a hug. 


By that time I was ready for some reading (and lunch) and with the help of Google Text made my way to a great Lebanese restaurant with a good book in hand. I sat down to a table full of some amazing Lebanese food that I only really ever get to eat at family gatherings or weddings (dolmas, fatayer, and zaatar). I continued reading my book, Sabbath Keeping, and didn't feel weird that I was sitting at a table by myself with 3 mini-appetizers, 1 glass, and 1 book. Actually since it was this weird time of day (between the lunch and dinner crowd) I was practically alone in the place... I enjoyed the book I am reading about the Sabbath. The author shared some great historical and cultural background on the Sabbath from Jewish culture and shared from her experience with Sabbath living in Iran and Israel. I slowly read, nibbled, pondered, reflected, and sipped to my hearts content. Later when I was ready I asked for a To-Go box, the waitress said 'i figured you'd want one' to which I was tempted to say something really witty but couldn't think of anything, so I smiled and I was okay with that. 


I packed up my leftovers which made for a tasty dinner later and headed home. I set out to do a couple things on the computer and ended up doing a few things I didn't set out to do, like watch a long chain of funny/interesting videos on You Tube, an episode of Late Night with Conan (his last week) and laughed out loud in my empty apartment. I took Charlie, the dog, out for a little walk. I didn't wear a jacket and though it was chilly, I actually enjoyed the breeze and fresh air. 


Later I left to pick up my housemate from work (her car has a flat tire) and we curled up to a cozy fire and watched the new episode of Lost, which I had DVR'ed so we even skipped commercials during which we shared some great laughs. Like I said, I didn't accomplish much, experience any amazing breakthroughs, or anything like that. I just did things I thought I would enjoy because I had the time to enjoy them...it was just a great, ordinary sabbatical day... and the kind of day a few months from now I just might look back on... and miss.