What would you do? Maybe more importantly, what would you not do? How often do you get to have perfect days? Who or what tends to screw 'em up?

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

Answers

My perfect day would be a spring day with all the attributes described in your forum by your readers the other day. It would not be a day spent at work. It could not be a day spent at home either because I am an "accumulator" as was my late husband, and I have tons of sorting and throwing out to do....should take me 2 years maybe if I didn't have to go to work. I don't want to feel guilty on this perfect day. So, therefore, I need to spend my perfect day at a cozy cabin in the woods or near a lake. I would hike beautiful trails, eat healthy, yummy food, have a really good book to read, an inviting hammock outside in the shade to read or nap in, and one or two of my cats to purr for me. Having just recently traveled to Spain alone, I think I would like to throw in a companion also. Male would be nice.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

My perfect day? It is one that I try to have for a full week every summer and at least 2 times a year no matter what. It is a day on the island of Nantucket. Wake up, walk into the cobblestoned town to sit outside at the cafe and eat a bagel and a good cup of coffee, with the sun shining down on my shoulders, go back to the house to get my bike and a book and blanket and bicycle to the beach wearing my big ol' straw hat. Spend most of the morning on the beach, back to the house to read my book on the porch, while sipping iced tea. Lunch down by the wharf with friends, check out the artwork in the artist's colony down by the boats, an ice cream cruise on the Nantucket sound, the smell of the restaurants getting ready for the dinner crowd, knowing I still have 6 days left of paradise to do exactly the same thing each day.... Only 72 more days and I will be doing exactly this.... but who's counting???

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

Wake up late to an empty (clean) house.

Realize I have the whole day to myself to do absolutely nothing.

Run out to the bookstore and buy more books then I can ever possibly read. Spend the next hour curled up in a lounger on the front porch deciding which book needed to be read first.

Spend the rest of the afternoon swept away by whatever fictional world I choose.

Finish said book late afternoon and give my Hubby and Daughter big hugs and kisses when they come home with dinner.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

A day...not gardening.--Al of NOVA NOTES, he of the two black thumbs....

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

A large hammock, tied to a large tree in a large garden with some water source running or rippling quietly nearby, a tall frosty pitcher of pink lemonade (not too sweet), lots of green green grass, tons of *quiet*, a good book flopped down on my chest, an arm over my eyes and a leg hanging out of the hammock. Oh, and some quietly droning bug noises. Throw in a good smelling guy to wake me up, and a barbecue as the sun goes down with friends, shrimp and really good beer. There ya go!

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

Reading an unputdownable mystery or two all day with no other expectations of me.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

Any day I can go outside and enjoy it. I love California, and I love hiking and bicycling and getting sunshine.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

It is spring, a very, very good start on a perfect day. Peace, tranquility, serenity and a nearby loving person who is also enjoying the emanations of Mother Nature in all her glory.

What screws up my perfect day ? Me most of the time, not on purpose, but you know these wild hairs and the nesting places they seek.

Freedom from nagging pain, insistent sales phone calls and the, "I'm sorry to bother you right now," people who I know are going to end up pissing me off some way or another - - - - yeah. Freedom from that stuff makes for perfection beyond measure.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

Ingredients: the ocean, northern california, winter day, quiet bed and breakfast, flannel pajamas, a stack of books, hot chocolate (with whipped cream), our favourite down comforter, my husband, lobster tails, strawberry daquiris, a box of fancy chocolates.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2000

Spring or summer, anyway it's quite warm. I wake up without the alarm, but early, and get in the car and drive to the nudist camp up in the mountains. I eat some bread in the car. I get there before a lot of people are there and secure a nice lounge chair in the shade. I sit in the sauna reading a book for a while. When I get hot I go in the pool, then back in teh sauna. When I'm tired of this I go lie on my lounge chair and fall asleep for a while. Some time in the afternoon I start thinking of other things I want to do and I leave. I go to the Goodwill and used book store on the way home and find all kinds of delightful things I've been looking for. Our best friends come over for dinner and we go out to eat and have a wonderful evening together.

I have perfect days most weekends, in that I get to go and spend the day at the nudist camp as described above. Sometimes I do the other things, but usually not on the same day.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2000

Wake up late, I mean L-A-T-E.

Baby wakes and my husband says "I'll feed her".

Go back to bed.

Get up and have fat free french toast (hey it's MY perfect day).

Play with baby.

Have meaningful and heartfelt conversation with husband while baby takes 3 hour nap.

And have sex.

Cuddle until our arms fall asleep.

Get taken out to a nice dinner.

Afterward baby falls asleep and I get a back rub while my husband tells me that I'm a great mom.

Watch sunset over the mountains.

Go to bed between my husband and daughter.

Repeat.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2000