Take a Flying Leap Day, 2012

Leap Day has always been interesting to me, but this year was especially good timing. Personally, I was really in need of a bonus day. A day that feels more like a gift than a “regular” day. A day that felt like a bonus. A day like that shouldn’t be spent working in a tiny cube for the man, a bonus day should be spent doing something epic and amazing! With that in mind, as soon as I realized that 2012 was a Leap Year, I marked off February 29 in my work calendar for PTO (Paid Time Off). I didn’t know what I was going to do or how I would spend those 24 beautiful, extra hours, but I knew for certain that I did not want to spend them at my regular job. I didn’t call in pretend-sick, I was responsible with my plan but I needed that mental health day as badly as I wanted it.

10:00 AM Wednesday 29 February 2012

My alarm goes off. I had set it the night before, after staying up until about 1:30 in the morning, so that I wouldn’t sleep in all day. I know some people wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed at the a**-crack of dawn, but I am not one of those people. If nothing wakes me up, I will sleep and sleep… and enjoy every last minute of it. So, I set the alarm for 10… and snoozed for about an hour and a half. It was glorious.

11:30 AM

I got up, washed up and made an epic breakfast: chopped spinach with lemon juice and flax seed; cage free egg whites, scrambled with pepper and tiny bit of salt; froot loops with skim milk; chai tea with skim milk. It was delicious and amazing and I enjoyed it while catching up on some T.V.

2:30 PM

Rock Climbing at VE

After filming some video for a YouTube video I was working on, I got ready to go to Vertical Endeavors to go rock climbing. I hadn’t been rock climbing in years and years, so I was really looking forward to it. I practice yoga regularly and while a nice long 90 minute hot class would have been a great way to celebrate too, I wanted to do something that felt new and different to mark this day. I intended to go earlier in the day, but there had been a huge snow storm the night before so I had to wait for the plow to come through our alley or I wasn’t going to be able to get my little car out…

6:00 PM

Tuna Melt + RootBeer Float

After a great few hours at VE, I was really hungry! I did a search on my phone for the closest restaurants and chose one that I’d never been to before: The Bad Waitress. I had heard of it before, but had never had the pleasure of eating there. I sat at the diner-style bar and ordered a tuna melt (I had never eaten a real tuna melt before) and a root beer float (because everyone knows you drink root beer floats on Leap Day). Delicious! And great service, I will be back for sure.

8:30

I took my time at the restaurant and headed home. I filmed some more (the Leap Day resolutions that go with this post) and worked on this blog.

I spent the rest of the evening hanging out at home and relaxing. It was such an energizing and revitalizing day, I came away with one perspective that I thought I already knew: When given the chance to balance your life and your work, TAKE that chance! I have x amount of vacation days per year, and I am very lucky to have those day. However, there are people I know at work that don’t even take all of their vacation days every year. And they don’t roll over! It isn’t like you can save them up and use them for a long trip sometime… If you have the time, TAKE your TIME! Be smart about it, don’t get your self fired and don’t leave work undone. It’s like any good yogi will tell you: maximum exertion and then maximum release… Shavasana!

Thanks for stopping by! Check out my video about my Leap Day resolutions and tell me yours! I would LOVE to hear what your LD Resolutions are, leave them in the comments below. Thanks again!