Today's fortune: January 15, 2011

Today's fortune: Life is a series of choices. Today yours are good ones.

I swaggered out of my office into the living room this morning after reading the day's fortune. Jamie was sitting on the couch tapping away at her laptop.

"Listen up, woman," I said, using my best fake-authority voice. "I run the show today. I wear the pants. My fortune said all my choices are good ones today. So I choose for you to get up and make me some breakfast."

Jamie barely glanced up from her computer before uttering, "I don't care what your fortune says. Make it yourself."

My ego properly checked, I started thinking about what my choices would be today.

All of my choices have been driven by the fact that it's Saturday, my Day of Leisure. I decided that any leisure activity I chose today was the right choice.

So I spent a lot of time reading, and made a dent in "The Lost City of Z," about Percy Fawcett's doomed expedition in South America. In the book I learned about some particularly nasty Amazonian insects, including a certain breed of millipede that squirts cyanide, a fly that injects its eggs under your skin, and a microscopic organism that infects you in such a way that the fatal symptoms don't show up for 20 years.

I also took a delightful hour-long nap in my easy chair, with a cat curled up in my lap. A cat's purr is a hypnotic metronome; the perfect soundtrack for afternoon napping.

While reading, I listened to some of my favorite downloaded music, including Ray Charles, Elton John, Shiny Toy Guns, The Roots, Cat Stevens, Kate Nash, The Republic Tigers and my new favorite band, Mumford & Sons.

Tonight I plan to watch a movie on DVD with my wife.

Speaking of Jamie, she reminded me of something else: this fortune shouldn't necessarily affect my choices; what it means is that I shouldn't second-guess myself, something I have a tendency to do. And therein lies a simple but important fortune: your first instinct is usually the right one.