What to do on your day off.

Wake up to a cat licking your knuckles. Roll out of bed, stopping mid-roll to rub the doggy belleh presented to you. Start the coffeemaker, then pee.

Check your messages. Notice that your trainer has cancelled your training session for the day. Hope that she doesn't have the violent stomach ailment that's been going around.

Leave the house an hour after waking up, having spent more time than is necessary in the shower with mounds of scented soapsuds and lots of implements. Make your way to Target.

Find that everything you need--boring stuff, like dish soap and lotion--is on sale. Grab a bag of work socks as an impulse buy. Think of how nice it'll be to have a dozen pairs of the same socks.

On the way home, decide to visit the strange little nursery on the edge of town. (NB: One of my few unbreakable life rules is never to shop at a nursery that doesn't have resident cats.)

Roll on into that nursery and greet the Domestic Orange Jumbo who patrols the perimeter. Meander slowly down the rows of trees (Japanese maples are big this year) and hardy annuals until you get to the greenhouse. Push aside the plastic sheeting that covers the door, walk into the greenhouse, and take a deep breath of warm, humid, growing-things-scented air.

Take a few more deep breaths.

Dodging craneflies, examine the offerings. Consider buying four-inch pots of catmint. Discard this idea when you remember how prolific and invasive catmint is. Sniff hard when you bend down to look at the Carolina jessamine and Asian jasmine in teeny pots. Admire the Meyer lemons and wish you could remember to bring such a thing inside when it gets cold.

Walk out of the greenhouse and enjoy the change from warm and humid to cool and slightly muggy.

Walk to the next greenhouse. Stop along the way to pet an argumentative calico cat and a black-and-white cat with long whiskers. Realize that the combination of greenhouse and relative outside humidity has made your hair go native in a big, bushy way.

Enter the second greenhouse. Breathe deeply. Realize that this one is mostly roses, but don't go back out, even though you don't want roses. Stroll the aisles of rose plants, reading every card and smelling every bloom. About halfway through, pick up the calico cat who's followed you in and carry her so she'll stop complaining.

Leave the second greenhouse. Stop to commiserate with the nursery's owner, who thanks you for paying attention to the bitchy calico (now curled up with her head on your shoulder). Discuss the drought, the invasiveness of artemisia, how Home Depot has ruined foundation plantings, and whether you can divide buddelia by whacking at it with a shovel.

On the way home, stop to pick up tacos from the taco truck.

Eat your tacos. Update your blog. Take a nap.