On bright, sunny days, when the sky was blue and she was enjoying her company, my Grandma Ruth used to exclaim, “It’s a good to be alive day!” All day today I kept saying that to myself.
Beginning with springing out of bed (after hitting the snooze button about five times) at 9:15, eating a bowl of cereal – Banana Nut Crunch – and a cup of hot green tea and fast walking over to the health club. I made it there for the THIRD time this week! Today’s Tae Bo class was quite challenging, much harder than the video. After twenty minutes I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it an hour. One guy did leave early, and I told myself I had to make it thirty minutes. I stayed the whole hour and felt great afterwards; it’s always that way.
When I left the health club I walked a couple of feet and ordered a cup of mandarin juice. The guy sliced open a bunch of mandarins and squeezed them using an industrial size, steel juicer that took both hands to operate. I walked around for over an hour, and bought many games of “lotería” (bingo) for my students back in Chicago, my favorite chocolate covered mini-marshmallows and a bunch of DVDs.
I walked to the center of Coyoacán and bought a bolillo at the bakery and next door some Manchego cheese. I hopped in a cab and once I arrived home, I settled in on my sunny patio, in the swing chair. “The Green Mile” was playing on my laptop as I consumed my bread and cheese.
I just dropped off every dry-cleanable piece of clothing I own and a suitcase full of wash and walked back to the center of Coyoacán. I’m sitting in the small restaurant Café Grifaldo, tucked in a corner off of the main plaza and enjoying a tasty, satisfying and refreshing salad – green, crisp lettuce, tomatoes, walnuts and goat cheese.
It has been an incredibly relaxing and enjoyable day – “A Good to Be Alive Day.”
