A Day of My Choosing

“I think you're going to find a lot of fulfillment out of life by just doing what you want to do and genuinely exploring what it is that you want, rather than doing what other people expect you to do, or society expects you to do, or what you might just think should be done by default.” ~ Naval Ravikant, Modern Wisdom, episode 922, “44 Harsh Truths About Human Nature”

October 10, 2026 was a Saturday, and as such, I had the whole day to myself. No work, no responsibilities to myself or others, no outstanding tasks gnawing at my mind. Early on in the day I made the very conscious, deliberate decision that this would be a day in which I was going to do exactly what I wanted to do, and that I would not deviate from that mindset. I started the day with a bowl of yogurt, half a bagel with cream cheese, and a cup of coffee. The yogurt was Siggi's covered with granola, flaxseed meal, and a handful of blueberries. The bagel was snickerdoodle, purchased from the Whidbey Island Bagel Factory just down the street: exactly the breakfast I wanted to have.

Several months ago, my friends, Randy and Chris, had gifted me a typewriter: a Lettera 22. It was in need of repairs, so I had dropped it off at the Bremerton Typewriter Company. About a week or two ago I received the call: my little typewriter had been fixed, cleaned up, and was ready for me to pick up. As I was finishing my breakfast, I decided that this would be the day I was going to drive down to Bremerton to retrieve the typewriter.

I had considered inviting a few of my friends to accompany me on this journey, but ultimately, I decided I would go alone. My social battery was a bit drained from a week of work that had turned out to be pretty demanding and a bit stressful. There were also a few things I wanted to cogitate on, and the two-hour drive before me seemed like a good opportunity to cogitate.

So, I got ready. I wore a typewriter themed t-shirt, that another friend of mine had gifted me. I put on a fragrance: Jermyn Street by Floris. Through a process my daughter and I underwent several years ago, she and I mutually decided that Jermyn Street would be my "signature scent" and it's been that ever since.

Wearing a scent is something I don't usually do on the weekends, but I wanted to today. I didn't wear it for anyone I was meeting. I wasn't meeting anyone in particular. I just feel a bit more refined and put together when I wear a scent. I noted that the desire to wear it was present and so I followed that desire.

I made a cup of coffee for the road and then I departed around 9:30am. Songs by Linda Ronstadt, ABBA, The Beatles, Lord Huron and Noah Kahan filed my ears as I drove. In the midst of those melodies, I let the cogitation begin.

I walked a mile with pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with sorrow;
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh! The things I learned from her,
When sorrow walked with me. ~ Robert Browning Hamilton

I suppose "cogitation" might be a misnomer. I wanted to have a conversation of sorts with myself. I had noticed an anger within me, that had been present for about a week, and I wanted to give that anger its due, to let it speak to me fully, so that I might learn what it had come to teach me. In short, what I was attempting was to have a fledgling IFS therapy session with myself. A great introduction to IFS or Internal Family Systems can be found here:

So, rather than suppress or avoid the anger I was experiencing — which is what I feel I tend to do — I sat with Anger for a while as I drove and let him tell me all that he wanted to say. I was patient and welcoming. He would say something to me and then reiterate the statement he just made as if I hadn't fully grasped the point he was attempting to make. When he was done, I made no rebuke or rebuttal. I had none to offer. I found his points and concerns to be valid. The Anger seemed to transform into Grief and Sorrow, and so I sat with them for a time and let them have their say. And then finally I sat with Acceptance: a feeling that the whole situation that brought about the anger was somewhat out of my control, and that the only thing that was in my control was how best to respond to the circumstance that was causing me distress.

Having arrived at Acceptance... and Bremerton, I parked and walked down to the little typewriter shop. There I met Paul, who greeted me enthusiastically and filed through his collection of serviced typewriters, eventually finding mine. He set the Lettera 22 down before me. I asked if he could give me a quick tutorial on all things Lettera as this was the first Olivetti typewriter I had ever owned. He obliged and gave me a quick rundown of the key operating features. The little typer performed admirably. I was very pleased. Paul and his team do fine work. Paying Paul for the service, I departed his shop with my typewriter and then departed Bremerton in search of some lunch.

Following the theme of the day: doing exactly what I wanted to do, I settled on Tat's Delicatessen as my lunchtime destination. I had first been introduced to Tat's several years ago when I used to work at Bungie in Bellevue. Tat's had a food truck that would visit the downtown Bellevue area every so often and that food truck had been a favorite for me and my colleagues at Bungie back in the day. I found a parking spot close to the restaurant, traipsed inside and ordered a Tat'strami sub. When the woman behind the register asked if I wanted it for here or to go, and I told her I planned on eating half here and taking the other half home, she was kind enough to offer to have half the sandwich wrapped up for me. I was tasting the nostalgia as I made short work of the hot, juicy, loaded sandwich.

After lunch I decided I needed a coffee to drink on my journey from Seattle to Mount Vernon so — after placing my wrapped up half a Tat'strami in my car — I walked a few blocks to Caffè Umbria and ordered a latte... but I didn't want just a latte... so I quickly changed my order to a lavender latte as I had recently been on a bit of a lavender coffee kick. After a few minutes, I was holding the exact drink I wanted: a lavender latte. With my coffee procured, I made my way back to my car and began my journey home.

Shortly after arriving home, I began typing up a thank you letter to Randy and Chris for the gifted typewriter. I felt it appropriate that the first letter to be typed on the newly restored machine should be to them. As I typed, I really garnered an appreciation for the little typer. It was a really solid machine — a joy to use (so much so that I ended up typing three letters with it throughout the course of the weekend).

After typing for a while, I found that I was tired, so I lay down on the couch and took a nap. After my nap, I ended up playing PalWorld with a friend of mine.

Thus ended the day of my choosing. A day in which I intentionally lived. A day in which I listened to myself and did exactly what was on my mind to do... and I went to bed satisfied that I had accomplished what I set out to do at the start of the day...

...The only thing I think I would have changed is the coffee I drank in the morning. If I had my druthers, I'd have exchanged my Trader Joe's coffee for Dorethea... a coffee roaster here in Mount Vernon. I grabbed a bag of Dorethea the following day.