an afternoon off...

...may be, believe you me, better than shoes!!

I have been working like crazy lately and apart from a short weekend to my beloved Lisbon, where indeed I had a "better than shoes" time, I haven't had a break since Christmas... I know, I know, this is the most difficult time of the year, the weather remains s*** and the spring has not even given us a sign it's close and all than has made it worse... But mostly it has been work that's been quite a heavy load these past couple of months... Well, those of you who read this blog regularly might have noticed the silence...

To top it up, I had to give a lecture to 25 students last week and I have also been a bit sick, nothing serious, just enough to put me through the adventure of trying to get a doctor on a Saturday... add to that chores like fixing the car window, cleaning my running shoes from an incredible amount of dirt, getting rid of the glass and paper for recycling and you got me without any energy left in my batteries... and none of all this would ever qualify to be in this blog if it wasn't to illustrate to you the value of today's afternoon off!!!

I never thought that snoozing on the sofa, warm under a soft blanket with a cuppa next to me and watching the home shopping channel would be such a bliss! But, bliss it was! I even almost bought the Ceramicore pans (nothing sticks to it and it is sooooooo easy to clean!)... well, almost... I stopped when I could not think of a place to store it... Nevertheless, that did not spoil my afternoon at all. Admittedly there is not a lot to tell you about it, however it is exactly this absence of action that made it the special, priceless, "better than shoes" experience worth sharing here with you ;)

bad decisions...

A friend of mine posted some weeks ago the following in her facebook page: "bad decisions make good stories" and I could not agree more! Looking back in my life, boy, do I have a huge bundle of those! Bad decisions and good stories, that is ;) And to be honest, I do not regret anything! Surely with the wisdom I have accumulated over the years -please, no laughs, I am indeed old and wise, you should have guessed by now- I would have done things differently in quite many occasions, but no, I do not regret the way I did things and the decisions I made because each and everyone of them made me who I am, got me where I am... and, it is not a bad place to be :)

With this, I don't mean that bad decisions are better than shoes... when it comes to that for that matter, I have taken soooo many bad decisions relating to shoes and most of them are still in my closet (those Stella McCartney stilettos have never been worn...) reminding me that with the money I paid for those I could easily spend a week in the Caribbean! But even for the worst decisions I made the stories are good, really good, "better than shoes" good! And their benefit is not only personal, no, I can also share it! Ever so often a friend confides in me about a troublesome situation they are in, about a choice they have to make, about (more often than you think...) a guy who's being a pain in the a** and at those moments I can open the drawers of my memory and share a good story based on my mistakes, my wrong decisions, which perhaps will help and guide them to the right one!

And that is why I thought it worth mentioning. Because this is better than shoes, sharing a good story, and maybe offering some insight, some perspective to somebody who needs it. Now, obviously, there were people who shared their stories with me in the past precisely so that I don't make their mistakes... and I did... stubborn? Perhaps only human... but in the process I made my own stories, my own life. And even if my stories don't help in reality anyone, oh well, they are still good stories! Even for just a laugh :)

first post for 2012...

17 days into the new year... not even considered "new" anymore, just the year we're in... I have been contemplating about starting off of the right foot, finding something spectacularly good to write about in my first post for 2012... something no-one could ever argue is not better than the best pair of shoes... and have not found it... no, it was not the warm New Year's Eve at home with some of my best friends here, not the sandy beach I walked on, not the bright hot sun in the middle of winter, not even enjoying a week of laziness, without worries and chores and errands to run... none of these seemed good enough... none of these felt "better than shoes"...

Was I expecting too much? Have I become too picky or blasé even?? Had I been ignoring my happy moments, have they really missed me? Is that what happened or indeed there has been nothing worth writing about? Nah... not possible! I kept saying to myslef that amazing things happen every day so in theory, I must have experienced 17 of them just this year! Or... maybe not...

Maybe, just maybe, there come times when good things do not happen... not that bad things find us necessarily or maybe just that one bad thing, namely being in a gloomy mood blinding us only as far as the good things go... dunno... and though it is not my preferred way of starting the year, this uncertainty that is, I will have to accept it and move on... move on with my life with the hope that my eyes will soon open and be able to spot the happiness no matter where it hides! And then, you bet I will be writing about it!