The Challenge: Congratulations on making it to the end. Your final test is to take tomorrow off. Spend today making any necessary adjustments. Do anything you want, but no work and no chores. Consider it a sick day or at least a “sick of it” day. (Remember, Adultitis is a serious affliction.)

Kim:
For us, challenge fell on February 11th — Jason’s 30th birthday. It was also a Saturday. We did have some fun celebrating the occasion, but figured we wouldn’t live up to the true spirit of this challenge if we did it on a weekend. So we set Tuesday as our "Sick Of It" day. It’s a day we probably shouldn’t have taken off because it’s a pretty busy week. However, it IS Valentine’s Day, and it IS our 11th anniversary of when we started officially dating.

My day started when I rolled out of bed at 10 am. One of my guilty pleasures in life is sleeping in. I made a point to turn off the ringers on the phones before we went to bed, so they would not interfere with my plans to snooze later. As I just started to wake up I turned on the TV and Jason came bouncing in (he heard the TV) and asked if I wanted to be spontaneous. So I put on my Dr. Seuss hat and off we drove to a neighboring town to get some breakfast at one of our favorite spots. We rarely go out to breakfast, so this was a fun treat. The rest of the day was filled with bumming around town at a couple stores, lunch with a friend, a walk in the long overdue mild weather, a nap, and finally dinner at one of our favorite joints, Outback Steakhouse. Yummy! It was a great day. So many times our weekends end of being injected with paying the bills, laundry, straightening up, etc. It was so nice to have a day to enjoy and relax. I wish my boss would let me do this once a week.  

Jason:
Kim did a great job of covering the highlights from the day, so I thought I’d add my random two cents. Most people automatically assume that they could never take a "Sick of it Day." I think that in most cases, that’s a big fat cop-out. What would happen if you came down with a terrible case of pneumonia this evening? Would you be forced to go to work anyway? What if you got seriously injured or — gasp! — killed on your way home from work tomorrow? Would you think to yourself, "Boy, am I sure glad I put in that full day of work today." Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating a complete and utter disregard for all personal responsibility. I’m talking about ONE day.

To me, the ones who can’t get themselves to take a "Sick of it Day" — I’m talking maybe one or three a year — are only proving that they’re not really in control of their life. They let life dictate the terms while they act passively, missing the best of what life has to offer. They’re the ones who wake up one day wondering why life didn’t treat them better, why it didn’t turn out the way they hoped. I heard a speaker — a bishop, in fact — who talked about life being like a stream. You’re in a canoe. If you do nothing more than just sit in your canoe, you will move. The current will take you somewhere. But if you care about where you end up, you have to put a little muscle into it. You have to paddle. Sometimes the current will be on your side, and the paddling will be easy. Sometimes you’ll be rowing against the current, and your path will be difficult. To me that’s what the Escape Plan is all about: changing the way you think and act. There are a million and one reasons to stay still in that boat. Change is never easy. But if you want to end up somewhere that gives you a feeling of peace, happiness and true fulfillment, it’ll take a little effort. One thing that I’ve learned from this whole thing is that the effort is SO worth it.

Dark Room Confessionals:
Bonus Video: Kim and Jason