Living Like a Local on a Hot Day

A Perfect Day

My early wake-up call is birdsong, not an alarm or phone call. The first thing I do is open the window to let in the sunrise and smell boxwood and baking bread while I get dressed. I already have visited or at least mapped out a garden or park to take a pre-breakfast walk in and enjoy the cool of the morning. After coffee and pastries at my hotel or a cafe, I find a quiet place in the shade with a wonderful view where I can write for pleasure or for work.

When the temperature gets uncomfortable, I go back to my room, close the curtains and take a nap, observing an age-old and practical tradition. As the town begins to wake up for the second time, I go get an ice cream cone and people watch, observing our similarities and differences. I drink a glass of wine and take a shower and around 8 I find a local restaurant and take time to really savor the food. And I eat dessert. I go to bed peaceful and again get up with the birds.

On the other hand, sleeping until noon, ordering room service, doing the Times crossword in my pjs and maybe leaving the room to go lounge by the pool is pretty fantastic, too.

I may or may not be alone on this perfect day. I’m not opposed to experiencing it with other people, but I’d rather be by myself than with someone who isn’t on the same page. If I could find a person who is both interesting to talk to and understands the value of silence, then I’d welcome company. Independence and being comfortable is more important to me than having someone along just for the sake of having someone along.

My perfect day isn’t really about excitement or expensive food or bright lights/big city. I’ve spent time in New York, Las Vegas, Toronto, Seattle, London, Rome and many other cities and I enjoy them. I’ve had some pretty spectacular days in them, too.

And it’s actually not about a place or that exact schedule I detailed above at all.

It’s about change and often introspection. And it’s usually in a different culture where I don’t understand the language and have to know people on a more elemental level, in the way we all are as humans, through observation of both others and myself.

Frances Mayes, the author of Under the Tuscan Sun, is one of my favorite writers. Her prose is melodic and inspiring. She wrote two things that have echoed in my brain and heart from the first time I read them.

First, “I had the urge to examine my life in another culture and move beyond what I knew,” and second, “Where you are is who you are...never casual, the choice of place is the choice of something you crave.”

The kind of freedom I must have to take a perfect day and make it plural--perfect days--is one of the main reasons I've pursued a career in remote content copywriting. Not only can I make a good living, I can work when I want to work, I can work where I want to work. What could be better than that?

An office job, one with structured hours and a 401K certainly has its attractions and is a perfect fit for a lot of people. For me, though, the likelihood of a perfect day or days happening in that environment, in the live-for-the-weekend and those two weeks of vacation in the summer environment, isn’t a safe bet.

I’ve done it and, well, it’s not my favorite. And since it’s not my favorite I’ve given myself permission to pursue something else, even though it’s risky. That thing is a career in remote writing and I’m looking forward with joy to many perfect days in my near future.