The other day I realized that I have stopped doing a lot of things that I enjoy. I don’t think that I ever consciously decided to do it – it just kind of happened.
This past weekend I went to a Broadway show (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) with my best friend, Pat. We decided that instead of giving each other presents for our respective birthdays that we would start a new tradition of getting together for a meal and seeing a Broadway show. This will be the first time I see a show in 11 months.
That is unheard of – I was an individual who would see a show every month. I could run my finger down a Playbill and list all the shows I had seen – the ones I had not were by choice. It was easy to do as I also belonged to the Roundabout Theatre and through them I would see seven (7) shows a year. This year I will only see one (1) of the Roundabout productions, it is “Anything Goes” with Sutton Foster and Joel Grey. Why did I not see the others? They were plays – most of them were a little depressing and I have to admit that when I go to the theatre I want to be entertained and to walk out happy. That is not to say that I am not interested in social commentary I am – but, I chose to determine what I want to hear people’s opinions of.
I have decided that I will begin to go to the theatre again. There are a list of shows I want to see: Sister Act, Billy Elliot, Follies How to Succeed In Business and I wouldn’t mind seeing Wicked for the fifth time as it has been several years since I have seen it. As you can see it isn’t necessarily a lot as this has been a pretty weak fall Broadway season. I know that they are looking to bring in quite a few shows at the beginning of the new year so that they are eligible for the Tony Awards. I can’t wait to see what they offer.
One (1) Saturday a month I will go into the City – head to the TKTS booth and buy a ticket for a show that I have not seen. I won’t feel guilty about the costs for a few reasons: (1) on the weekends I park for free at the train station, (2) train tickets are off peak pricing; and (3) I am buying the ticket for half price by going to the TKTS booth. Also, I believe in the Arts and our need to support them – so I will indulge myself once a month, support the Arts and get a little bit of culture all at the same time.
The other thing I haven’t done in a while is have a really great vacation. For many years I would take a week vacation with my family and we would go to either the North Carolina Outer Banks and then we started going to the Delaware shore; and, I would also then take a week alone and go some place I enjoyed for some sun like the Bahamas or to Cancun.
I have not done that in years – nor have I taken a tour of a European country in years. It is time to start taking that once a year vacation that I enjoy. For 2012 I am considering an Alaskan cruise. I have always wanted to go to Alaska to see the whales, glaciers and our 50th State. I know that a cruise will take me to the various parts of Alaska that I am interested in – so I have begun to investigate various cruise lines and the excursions they offer; and, into leaving from Seattle. I have never been to Seattle and I would like to be able to be there for a couple of days and just experience it.
I have 27 days each year that I can take as vacation, sick or personal days. Since we do not get the day after Thanksgiving off I will always use a vacation day for that (you don’t think I am going to get on the road on Black Friday)!!!! Then I will take some days off between Christmas and New Year’s just because that is a time when things are slow and it is nice to spend with the family. But, I am one who normally doesn’t get sick (0 sick days in over 10 years) and I am able to work my job around the personal things I need to do: doctor appointments, car servicing, etc. so I could say that as for being able to enjoy some travel I have 20 days a year to do so.
I will still look for some time with the family whether we reinstate going down to Delaware for a week or we do long weekends to the Jersey Shore, I will look to do something fun with the boys; but, I don’t want to regret not having gone somewhere.
So once more I am opening myself up and determining where I would like to travel, explore and become more familiar with in culture, food and countries. As I have been thinking this through I would like to go to Buenos Aires in Argentina – they have great beef, wine and the Tango. I have always loved Italy and would like to see the Sistine Chapel with no scaffolding (in 1984 when I was there it was being cleaned). Then there are places like Hungary, Prague which are supposed to be beautiful and full of great architecture and art that I would like to see.
The possibilities are endless – I am not getting any younger, I am in good health and physically fit, I am financially comfortable and as they always say, “there is no time like the present”. So perhaps subconsciously there were many reasons I put the things I enjoyed to the side; but, all is good now and it is time to resurrect them.
Are there things that you need to resurrect and bring back into your life? Ponder why you stopped doing them – decide to start them again; and, take the steps to incorporate them into your lifestyle again.
Remember: Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
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