{"id":1888,"date":"2014-02-06T09:02:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T08:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2024-11-18T16:03:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T15:03:29","slug":"simple-pleasures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=1888","title":{"rendered":"Simple Pleasures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lazy<\/a>One of the most enjoyable parts of this alarming activity known as \u2018aging\u2019 is that the world moves insanely fast. I don\u2019t mean people speeding around me, though that is the case as well. I mean that time frickin\u2019 flies. It was just last week that I was leaving the university for summer holiday, Christmas was yesterday morning, and surely June will be here again tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s work day in and day out, jogging, read on the tram, watch a sitcom over dinner, sleep. And before I blink, another year has gone by. This is especially true since I tend to worry about the future rather than the right now.<\/p>\n

Do you? How often have you said something like: I can\u2019t wait for this day to be over, Once this class\/meeting is over, I can relax, I need spring to be here, Come on Friday! <\/i><\/p>\n

Moreover, happiness is always just around the corner, something that will come at some other time than now. 5 pm on a Friday, on December 24th<\/sup>, after my proctology appointment, on the first day of holiday.<\/p>\n

In the interest of not missing my whole life waiting for something else to happen, I am making an effort to savor the small moments. I want to enjoy the little daily joys, the things that happen here and now. And so here are some of my simple daily pleasures.<\/p>\n

Nap time. There is nothing in the world like a good nap. A nap says: the world can move on without me for a bit, I\u2019m going to doze and cuddle this couch pillow. You read on the couch until you\u2019re out, then wake up with your hand tucked into your pants and a line of drool you wipe off with your sleeve.<\/p>\n

Brinner. Breakfast for dinner, such great comfort food. My love of brinner traces back to childhood when meals were regimented by my mom and not what I felt like cooking or how much Becherovka I ingested. My mom would cook brinner \u2013 French toast, pancakes, waffles \u2013 once in a while and the joyous hysteria it caused you\u2019d have thought the actual Care Bears were coming for a visit.<\/p>\n

A good walk. I live a mile from the metro station that I walk to every morning. Sometimes I grumble and curse as I stomp towards it. But occasionally I realize how lucky I am to have that opportunity every day. Some people have to pile into cars and drive forty minutes in horrible traffic. When I remember that, I enjoy my walk more, smile, stretch my legs, talk to myself, and ogle cute pedestrians.<\/p>\n

Even if you do have to spend your morning and evening in a car, go for a walk once a day. Loosen those limbs up and look around. Also, rewarding yourself with a drink is easy coercion.<\/p>\n

Stay up late. Like most day workers, I find myself drowsy and ready for bed at 11ish. I brush my teeth, lie down, read, and doze off til the cat irks me awake four hours later. But every now and then it\u2019s great just to stay up really late. Remember how much fun it was to be awake when you were a kid and everyone else was asleep? It was like you ruled the world. Plus, if your dad had cable you could watch Skinemax and Playboy channel, provided you could tap the dial just right.<\/p>\n

Sometimes on a Friday night, I\u2019ll stay up and watch movies or write or read and enjoy that feeling of ruling the dark world. A late night is best enjoyed with its sister pleasure \u2013 sleeping in.<\/p>\n

An afternoon drink. As a thirty-something day worker, a drink is most often a Friday or Saturday pleasure. And if it does happen during the week it\u2019s usually a night thing and comes with an unpleasant morning. But here and there it\u2019s great just to play hooky from the outside world and have a drink at a pub. Almost anything you add to this pleasure makes it better. You can do this alone with a good book or share a drink and a few laughs with a friend.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s my (incomplete) list of simple pleasures. What about you? Please add to it and try to enjoy the world at a slower pace. Because, folks, we are quite simply hurtling through time. And I\u2019m pretty sure our terminal station does not involve afternoon drinks.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s almost certainly no brinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most enjoyable parts of this alarming activity known as \u2018aging\u2019 is that the world moves insanely fast. I don\u2019t mean people speeding around me, though that is the case as well. I mean that time frickin\u2019 flies. It was just last week that I was leaving the university for summer holiday, Christmas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-us","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1890,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/1890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}