Day 2

Today was a totally self-indulgent one. Lazying around reading. Scrumptious. My favourite of all time pastimes. I allowed myself the entire day. Only a couple of times did I think "I should be ..." and have to stop that thought. Great way to start a year that I'm hoping to make all about taking good care of me. Which means learning to relax once in a while.

Out my back door I watched my neighbour's daughter and a friend trouble shoot the misfortune of being locked out of the house. I generally follow Star Trek's 'non-interference' policy with other people's children (mostly because I think kids need the space to figure stuff out for themselves) but when they started dragging lawn furniture into a pile (I assume to climb to the second floor window) I went out to see if they needed any help. Nowadays, you never know what trouble the kids could attract when they are clearly vulnerable and I couldn't leave them like that.

They said they had a 'method' figured out and that they'd be ok. I expressed my concern that they might be injured while completing their plan, so I suggested that in case they need help, just give a yell, I'm right here. I barely got back to the house when they waved me back. They said their 'method' wasn't working out, so I suggested that maybe another adult in their life would have a key. No, they didn't want to bother dad at work and mom was out of the country. But they were meeting a grandparent at dance class later, and she'd have a key.

It's kinda cold out there, and gets dark early, so the solution was pretty simple. I gave them a few bucks to hang out at the local coffee shop (maybe get a snack) until dance class time. The young gal said I was 'awesome' but added sadly that 'there is no way my parents would do something like that'.

What a great day. I've 'paid forward' $20, the girls got safely out of the weather (and possibly harm's way), and maybe learned a little thing about paying forward.

And I went back to indulging myself in my book.

Nice. :)