Recently I’ve been pretty intense with this website because I feel like I’m not making enough progress in terms of the goals I want to achieve, so on the days I’m not at the spa, my planner has all sorts of scribbles in it like Two posts today! Find Slackers links! Schedule Tweets for the week! Utilize analytics! 

And yeah, there are that many exclamation points. I’m always screaming at myself.

This week I had four days off from work in a row, so naturally I thought it would be the perfect time to really get ahead and write my ass off. Monday and Tuesday I went to town, locking myself in my room and banging out as much material as I could muster, however sitting in my cramped apartment in a sweltering heat wave was beginning to feel a little bit suffocating so Tuesday night I hit my brother up and was all “Haay! What say I swing by your place tomorrow and we can do some work poolside?”

Allow me to explain. Twenty-two years ago my brother and I made the incredibly wise decision to befriend our boy Dan, who is now Doctor Dan and lives in a swank building with a pool overlooking downtown Manhattan. My brother is staying with him for the summer and now this is how I get to spend some Sundays:

Everyone knows having your feet in the picture proves you’re actually there!

However, this was not a Sunday, this was a Wednesday, so I packed up my computer and told myself that I was going to make it a work day, until I got there and my brother asked me if we should just have one drink. I mean, it hardly made sense to sit by the pool without at least one drink, right?

So next thing you know, I’m all like

 Yey-ah!

It wasn’t long before my brother and I decided that there wouldn’t be much work getting done. That’s when the real fun started. There’s something special about blowing off your responsibilities to indulge in shenanigans. It’s a different kind of satisfaction than when you have a day off planned. Sometimes there’s too much riding on a trip to the beach or a picnic in the park because it’s like OK, we went to all the trouble of setting this up, it better not be lame, but if you were supposed to be doing something that sucked anyways but decided to say Fuck it! instead, you’ve got nowhere to go but up.

The best part is when you start making deals with yourself. My brother and I never fully committed to scrapping the whole day. When he went to make our second drinks I was like, Alright, but only one more, I have yoga at six tonight! and he was like No, seriously, I have kickboxing at seven!  It’s great because you keep telling yourself that you’re going to be somewhat productive which gives you the opportunity to have that Fuck it! moment over and over. Here’s one of them:

No one does a Fuck it! quite like me and my brother. The high-fives involved are so enthusiastic they often result in punches to the bicep afterwards in retaliation for busted hands.

I’m not sure if my brother is giving a thumbs up to the ladies or the mention that he should probably make one work call.

Things went from awesome to outstanding when the people next to us packed it in and we switched from this cabana…

 …to this one.

Game. On.

After that we were like Dranks! And then I was like I’m hungry! So Jeff is like Yeah! I’ll get us some food!

 That idiot came back with two apples and one cherry tomato. WTF?! So then he says Well what else am I supposed to bring a vegan on a diet?!  Then we high-fived again and I said

 Hahaha! You’re funny. And then he was like

No, really, eat the tomato, and then we went drinks drinks drinks drinks drinks and then this happened.

Oh and Jeff made that work call.

Neither one of us made it to our workouts though, but that’s OK. In forty years is it going to matter that I didn’t go to yoga or get that one extra post written? I don’t think so. I will however, be able to say, that I had a blast one time, hanging with my bro, at a fancy pool, laughing and high-fiving all day, drinking raspberry Stolis and eating a cherry tomato.

So if ever you find that you’re overwhelmed, buried under expectations and demands, do yourself a favor once in a while; take a personal day, bypass the gym, procrastinate with your homework and go do something fun. Have yourself a Fuck it! moment.

You’ll feel better for it.