A productive trip

This past weekend I visited one of my best and oldest friends, and it was an incredibly productive trip.  I don’t mean productive in the traditional sense.  I mean, it was productive for my head, heart, body, and soul. 

She’s one of my oldest friends; we first met in elementary school.  And we’ve had moments of keeping in better touch than others, but throughout the last three decades, we’ve seen each other somewhere between daily and once a year.  No matter how much time goes between talking on the phone or seeing each other in person, we always pick back up right where we left off.  We know each other very well, and as a result, we’re comfortable talking about anything and 100% being ourselves with no pretenses or worry of what someone else is going to think.  As I get older, I genuinely value strong friendships like this. 

Let me get back to calling this trip “productive.”  I know that sounds like a business term or something I shouldn’t equate to anything with a good friend and quality time.  The definition of productive is “producing or able to produce large amounts of good.”  The trip produced large amounts of good in my life!  I came into the trip feeling a bit tired, isolated, unfocused, and disconnected.  I left feeling refreshed and all-around great. 

We spent our time doing simple things that we both enjoy:

• We went on runs together. Well, partially together.  I’m a fairly slow runner, and she’s an amazing athlete.  She would run 3 miles “really slow” with me and then run her faster 7-8 minutes pace for another way too many miles.  I learned this is how Kenyan’s train; they run “really slow” (for them) at the start and then build up their pace.
• We cooked delicious and healthy food.
• We then ate copious amounts of junk food late at night.
• We went for walks.
• We talked about everything and real things that matter.
• We watched some TV. Most notably, the 2 hour Meghan and Harry interview and a couple of episodes of Drunk History on Hulu.  We would recommend both! 
• I fixed her vacuum cleaner and her internet.
• She reminded me I need to take better care of my skin and bought me some fancy face lotion.
• We played with my new drone, which I’ve been having a lot of fun with. I learned she could run faster than a drone can fly. 

What made this simple trip so particularly enjoyable?

• There were no kids to take care of. We had the unique pleasure of being without all of our kids for three whole days.  A special thank you to our husbands and ex-husbands for allowing us this!
• We got things done! My friend couldn’t take off work, so she had to work a bit.  I had taken off my paid job, so I used that time to work on some personal projects like writing for this blog and recorded a podcast 
• It was away from my house, which always seems to be more relaxing for me. My house is filled with a never-ending to-do list; every time I look at some item or area, it reminds me of something I need to do.  When I am outside of my house, I immediately relax.
• The weather was beautiful! It was unseasonably warm for the area we were in and just lovely all weekend. 
• It was with someone I am 100% comfortable with. I’m not afraid to tell her if something’s annoying me, and vice versa.  I sometimes forget how nice this is, especially when you’re a guest in someone else’s home. 
• We complement each other! I fix all of the mechanical things she doesn’t want to deal with, and she inspires me to spend even more time working out and spend a little more money on my skin + hair routine. 
• We stayed active, and we ate junk food. Both of these things make me happy in very different ways.  Life wouldn’t be as enjoyable without the combination of these two things. 

I so enjoyed this 72-hour trip, and it reminded me I should do things like this more often.  I was able to connect with a great friend that I don’t get to see often enough.  I was able to reconnect with my thoughts and feelings outside of the chaos and noise of my current life.  It also reminds me why financial freedom is so important to me.  It allows me the time and flexibility today to do things like this, and hopefully even more of this in the future as I formally retire.  This trip produced large amounts of good, hence the productive trip.  Here’s to more productive trips in the future.

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Written while listening to Least Complicated by Indigo Girls

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