The Perfect Day

Throughout life days tend to be, well, blasé at times. We go through the motions and put on our happy faces. We give out a chuckle at the silly jokes we hear, put on our best disappointed face when something bad that we really don’t care too much about happens and even tell ourselves how wonderful life is, when nothing spectacular is going on. Yes, life. And so it goes. But once in a while, we wake up to the beat of a different drum. For apparently no reason whatsoever, everything falls exactly into place. The stars align, the full moon rises, hell freezes over and life just rolls out the red carpet and gives us a spectacular day. Well, today, I had such a day.

After having what could have been quite possibly the best night of uninterrupted sleep ever, I woke up with a smile on my face and decided this was going to be an “RJ Day” – a personal day if you will. I decided right then and there, still in bed in the dark that I was going to skip my morning routine and NOT go to the gym like I had been for the last 10 days. Nope, today I was going to go back to bed and sleep in for an additional 3 hours. And so I did. When I awoke for the second time I sprung out of bed rejuvenated and practically skipped to the shower. I turned on the water and it was hot and clear right away (not the normal cold and brown sludge I was used to). I had a great shower and the perfect shave which followed – no cuts, no nicks, just perfect. After giving myself a look of admiration in the mirror and congratulating myself on a lot of hard work at my midsection, I went back to my room to get dressed.

The walk to lunch was pleasant. There was a cool breeze gently blowing against my face and when I arrived at the line expecting to wait in the hot sun, I found that I arrived exactly on time and there was no wait. The Ugandan guard must have noticed my happy demeanor because even he smiled at me and said, “Good Morning, Sir!” Inside I decided to treat myself to a scoop of Pralines and Cream ice cream with caramel sauce – a delicacy that I’ve been depriving myself of ever since I started on my dieting 3 weeks ago. It was delicious! As I left the chow hall, I made it to the corner just as the bus pulled up beside me and opened its doors at my feet. Perfect timing again!

I arrived at work and booted up my computers, just like every other day, only today my G-mail account was full of surprisingly good news. First off, I got an e-mail from a man in Hawaii whose apartment I was considering and he informed me that things were all settled! He wants me to move in and he attached the leasing papers! I’ll be moving back to Hawaii and moving into an apartment on the 9th floor of a highrise in Waikiki Beach! 1200 square feet, 2 bedroom 2 full bath, Jacuzzi in the Master Bath, partial ocean view, 4 blocks from the beach, newly renovated with travertine floors and marble countertops in a price range that I’m more than comfortable with, all utilities included! I was so excited I filled out the paperwork and sent it back to him straight away. Now I’ll have a place to come home TO!

The next e-mail was from my friend Kylie. She just informed me that she and her boyfriend Robbie, two of my best friends in Hawaii, finally found a place of their own. While they were originally thinking about staying on the other side of the island, far from town, they found a great place in…Waikiki Beach! I’m going to be neighbors with them!

At this point I was beaming and sipping on my freshly brewed Hawaiian coffee wondering what else could happen? Well, the next e-mail was from my father. I was a little more apprehensive to open this one – you see, my father and I just started to communicate with each other via mail for the first time in over 8 years. The details are long to explain, but suffice to say we haven’t been close. Anyway, I opened up an e-mail from him which stated how he was very proud of me and he was grateful for a gift that I sent him a few weeks ago. He had some very nice things to say in the e-mail and I was very pleased at hearing from him (which is not normally the demeanor I take from a communication from him).

I paused my e-mail reading to tend to a few patients that came in and to do some work, but returned to my inbox to read the rest of the e-mail. I ended up hearing from some long lost friends that were looking forward to seeing me when I visit them in November. It was nice catching up with them and it made me realize just how many people are thinking about me over here. It felt good.

The next thing I noticed was that one of my DJ friends in Miami sent me some mp3s of some brand new house music to my e-mail account. This was just in time for me to load them onto my IPOD to have some new music to exercise to.

Next it was time to check the mail – 2 care packages I had been waiting for full of goodies!

By the time I made it to dinner I was riding on cloud nine, but it wouldn’t stop there. After dinner I got an e-mail on my work account from my Commander in Hawaii. He wrote “Congrats R.J., the list just came out and I saw that you were selected for Lieutenant Commander! You should be promoted by next summer!” Holy Cow I thought, a promotion, a pay raise… that’s awesome!

Yes, once in a while, life just deals you a great hand. It’s days like that, days like today, that make all the others worthwhile. I hope that each and every day for the rest of this deployment is filled with as much positive energy and as much good news as this one was!