Perfect Day @ 42

On Friday, December 13^th, 2013, I had awoke two hours into a red eye flight back to Orlando, Florida. Being in a plane crash when twelve years old, sleeping in-flight had become a foreign concept until now. After an exhausting 80 hour work week in California, I had fell asleep with earphones on listening to the all too familiar, Tron Legacy Soundtrack. The big bonus of the early morning was discovering the flight time being four hours versus, the initial westbound trip of five. At 3 am Eastern, I had already thought, “Good way to start the day.”

Getting home from the airport around 5:30 am, I had wanted to generate a self-induced insulin spike for another round of sleep. Scarfing down a banana, a big spoon of peanut butter, a magnesium pill and cup of orange juice, I had set course for slumber on my Spartan two inch mattress pad on the bedroom floor. For those unfamiliar with this Spartan affair, it was physical and mental conditioning for various road trips for the back of my ’96 Ford Explorer or some hiking shelter. Plus, I had experienced feline fluids once too often on a decent mattress but, urine that’s another story for another day. Fading quickly into unconsciousness, I had received the best sleep in two weeks in two hours. Waking up a few hours later, I had begun unpacking my luggage before heading to 10 am doctor appointment. Before leaving my place, I had received some impromptu affection from my cat Patch. Stroking Patch’s soft orange white ears, I had reflected, “Great to be home again!”

After a quick interlude reviewing blood work with my family doctor of 13 years, I had started driving to Altamonte Springs AMC Movie Theater for a noon showing of “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.” En route, I had fielded a call from a good friend. Taking a moment from his workday, he had sung “happy birthday to you” in his low masculine southern inflection. With his father’s passing about a year ago, I was moved. Think the act had meant a lot two both of us. After all, only my mom had called to wish such tidings that way. Wrapping up the call, I had thought, ”The Hobbit can suck, it’ll still be a good day!”

Arriving at the AMC Movie Theater with another friend, I had purchased my ticket going straight to the overpriced concession stand. There, I had mentioned receiving a free big soda on your birthday; however, the line employee had wanted an actual print out of the email offer. With some managerial escalation, I had coaxed them into scanning the barcode directly from my iPhone. With the elation of victory, I had clinched my fist with arm halfcocked blurting out the phrase, “Money!”

Returning from the movie, I had wanted to finally watch, BBC’s 50^th Anniversary episode of Dr. Who, “Day of the Doctor.” Though during the morning, I had accumulated quite a few well-wishing messages from Facebook, email, texts, and voice mail. Some people, I hadn’t heard from in a few weeks to a quite a few years. I had concluded time better spent exchanging responses before becoming self-indulgent. Dr. Who being a “Time Lord”, I had thought in Yoda speak, “He understands changes to space time continuum, yes!”

With personal affairs in order, I had turned on my Apple TV and LCD television to watch Dr. Who. Needless to say, I hadn’t kept up with the last two seasons of Matt Smith as “the Doctor.” The anticipation for this episode had come from fellow fan feedback and John Hurt as special guest star. Without providing any spoilers, I had completed the episode with joyful smile and even a semblance of a tear. As the late Lou Reid had sung, “Oh, what a perfect day!”

With the theme of Dr. Who fresh in my mind, I had headed out to pick up another friend for Karaoke. Arriving at the bar around 10 PM Eastern, we had discovered the facility closing without an ounce of entertainment. Improvising, my friend and I had gone around the corner to another restaurant with live music. With a ginger ale and margarita in tow, we had hatched a gestating idea. That idea was going back to Georgia the next day to hike part of Appalachian Trail. With excitement of the idea keeping exhaustion at bay, I had figured,”Why not?”

I had started the day with just wanting to be home and get to a doctor’s appointment. The irony, I had experienced so much more in moments than any wrapped gifts can contain. Think a lot of people had characterized me in my 20s and 30s as being stoic, inward and dark. Trolling around in my early 40s, I had hoped to be a catalyst for illumination. To my blog’s refrain of “What is inside you?”, on 12/13/13, on this day, it was a “Perfect Day @ 42.”