...That I've been taking my own advice, which is a good thing. Last week, on Valentine's Day, I posted the lyrics to the newest Chicago single. After listening to it about 100 times so far (and still not quite 100% on the words because no one is playing it on the radio, and I always do better in a car with lyric retention than I do anywhere else) I've realized that I've been following the advice of the song.

Stop thinking with your head... start using your heart instead...

Last weekend DH and I took the girls to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and I squelched my need to plan out where we needed to be at what times to see everything that they had there. Now, I did fall into that trap near the end of the day when the otter and penguin feedings were almost on top of each other, but this was something not to be missed. And it was worth it.

But the rest of the day I just followed along with the kids and DH, and I had a great time. And I slept very well that night (from all the walking we did). I just breathed in the air that smelled of the ocean and of fish, and enjoyed the weather that went from sunny to cloudy to slightly rainy. I didn't care about my hair getting wet, or worrying about getting home before dark. I just felt everything that was going on around me. It was a very good day.

Yesterday afternoon I did something very similar. A co-worker asked me if I'd heard about the Amgen Tour of California. I hadn't, and that's because it's not been promoted very well. What it is: a bicycling race including the best teams in the world - many of whom also do the Tour de France. It took me about two minutes to figure out that I wanted to go, so I blew off the last half the afternoon yesterday and stood on a sidewalk in a residential neighborhood in Milpitas waiting for the riders to go by. Best part was that they would go by twice, after completing the Sierra Road hill loop. The first run through they were just one big pack, with three riders way up front, and a few stragglers. The second run through there were 4 distinct groups, still with three riders way up front. We didn't stick around to see who the stragglers were, or how many of them were. I figured the narrowing of the road and the hills alone would have broken up the group.

I used to watch cycling a lot, and now it's only limited to what I can stream of the Tour de France on my computer at work when the race is running. But the big thing that I got out of it was an afternoon in the sunshine, just standing around with a bunch of other people and talking, and enjoying being there without worrying about work, meetings, schedules, or anything else. I shut off the brain and just existed....

...and it was good. I highly recommend letting yourself just exist every once in a while.