Monday morning, after the kids took off for school, and my husband left, pulling his suitcase behind for an overnight business trip, I decided to give myself the day off from writing. After a quick trip to the laundromat and a walk with a friend, I lay down on the couch and turned on the television. I flipped to one of my favorite guilty pleasures: The Food Network. I should mention that since beginning to copy AK, I have watched very little TV, but hey, this was my day off, so I indulged in a couple of episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. And since I was relaxing, I opened up Hooked On Words on my phone and played a few games. Okay, maybe I did run the battery down. By the end of the day, I had done more "relaxing" than I had done over the previous seven days combined. I fell asleep on the couch, waking at 11:30 to go up to bed. I slept fitfully, waking up every couple of hours. Gone was the wonderful feeling of sinking into my bed at night. Gone were the vivid dreams of the past week. Still present, however, were the pains in my hands and wrists. Honestly, I felt like crap, not at all like I expected to feel after a day off.
At 5am, tired of my restless night, I got up and headed down to make tea. I turned on the kitchen light and opened my big black binder. I pulled out page 15 from AK, thinking I could get an early start on the first page for the day. By the time 12 left for the bus, I had finished two pages. I made a second cup of tea and sat back down to finish another, putting me at a grand total of seventeen pages so far.
Just as I was closing the binder, my sister sent me a text asking if I wanted to go the State Fair. I responded, in all caps, Yes!
As it turned out, today was my day of rest, even though technically I wrote three pages. I met my sister and her daughter. Together we made our way through the fairgrounds, stopping first for a freshly made corndog. We watched baby Clydesdale ponies in the Coliseum then headed back outside for roasted corn. From there we went into the Cattle Barn. I passed rows of cows, organized by farm. A little girl of about 10 lay napping in the straw right beside a sleeping cow. A toddler sat inside a playpen, scribbling on a Fair Program with an inkpen while a group of men sat in fold-out camp chairs under a canopy. At the end of the barn, I found the petting area which held five babies of different breed. One, a Swiss Brown, was standing right in front of me. When I reached my hand down, its long purplish-gray tongue slipped across my palm. It stood about three feet tall and its hip bones poked out one each side of its hind end. But its ears were like taupe-colored velvet and its nose was pinkish and wet. It continued to lick me, even when I turned to pet another baby, until finally, the animal walked around behind me (by now I was inside the pen) and tugged at a strand of my hair. When I turned around, it was right there. I laughed. I pulled out my phone and took a picture of the baby peering over my shoulder. It got up even closer, nosing me out of the selfie.
We stayed a while longer, checking out the poultry barn, a giant cheese sculpture and finally the Wine and Beer Tasting, where I met the employees of a local used bookstore with a microbrewery attached. Phillip let me take his picture next to the quote at the Books & Brews tasting booth. He even asked about my blog when I told him what I was doing. I think on my next Day of Rest, I will check out their shop.
Rest for me seems to be more a state of mind than of body. I'd like to say I will remember that from now on, but I know I won't. I start. I stop. I start up again.
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