Home Posts tagged "vacations"

Tag: vacations

Staycation, Gotta Get -Away- Get It Done

Hullo, friends. it is Tuesday! The day that we blog. Yes. I totally remembered that all day long! I remember which day it is on a regular basis! Confession–I actually didn’t remember today was Tuesday. Because I’m on vacation. It’s so easy to forget, it seems–we’re two actual days into the workweek I’m not working, and I forgot what day it was! Which is even harder to believe I managed, because–well, let me show you. Going into the summer, I had no intention of taking a week off. I had the hours, but I didn’t have any money to go anywhere, and we’re still being careful anyway. Might as well just save the time off till I had something useful to do with it, right? Well, but my admin team was taking a week off. I would still have plenty to do–there is ALWAYS more to do–but I’d be going to work every day, and they wouldn’t. I’d probably end up not doing much but answering the phones and being mad at myself for not having taken the week off. So I took it. At least, I thought, I can get some things done. Ah, yes. That age-old goal of adults everywhere, to Get Some Things Done. I made a list. I collected notes from here there and everywhere, and I brainstormed, and I wrote a lot of things down, and then I put some of them on post-its. And then I put them on my whiteboard. And still I…

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The Other Cabin Fever

No, not that one. Well, originally that one. A few months ago I did something extremely out of character—I jumped on making reservations for a cabin I’d never seen, in a park I’d never visited, because there were nights available. Mount Lemmon had been closed because of the pandemic, then caught fire, and I didn’t know when we’d be able to go there again and I couldn’t imagine staying home any longer, and so I started looking elsewhere, and then I jumped on the first thing I found. Camping, you see, is about as safe as you can get right now, especially the way we camp—as far as we can get from everyone, avoiding people like they might carry plague long before the pandemic. Anyway. This past weekend was, at last, our weekend. Behold our weekend home, as the sun set. Ahead of the cabin, the lake. Behind the cabin, the mountain. I took this picture farther around the lake, so our cabin is in it. Meet some of our neighbors. Several of these guys dropped by Friday night to see if we’d left anything out for them. Sadly I did not take a picture. I did take a picture of the one I ran into raiding the snackbox (read: trash can) outside the restroom at four in the morning, but all you can see are its eyes glowing red, so we’ll skip that one. These birds would come in the evenings and chatter and flit about these reeds sticking…

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Hermit Habit

As I would imagine happened to a lot of people, I was furloughed the last week of March. So I haven’t worked in almost a month. I found out today that it will be an additional two weeks, so at least six weeks of not working. It’s so weird. I’ve been working for more than thirty years. This is…even when I had my kid, I was out for only six weeks. And I was super busy that whole time, recovering and taking care of the baby. Not going to work for weeks on end? Not having vitally important stuff I need to do right now for days on end? It’s so weird. But it turns out, I’m the weird one. I like it. Turns out, I am just as much of a happy hermit as I always thought I would be. The reasons for my hermiting suck, don’t get me wrong. I am quite cognizant that others are suffering, and I look for ways to help. But me? I’m home. All the time. And I love it. You’ll be astonished to learn I’m writing a book, I’m sure. I’ve been doing write-ins two to three times a day, where I and a varying number of friends gather in a text chat and sprint for ten minutes at a time. I write from one thousand to five thousand words a day most days. It’s a ton of fun. And my book is nearly 40,000 words! Naturally, one of the first things…

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Ten Things I Learned On My Spring Vacation

I’m back from vacation! Did you miss me? (Don’t answer that.) If you’re anything like me, coming back to real life is always hard, although it’s also good to be home. And if you’re anything like me, you love to overthink analyze everything. So here goes: Things I Have Learned About Myself On Vacation. 1. When I’m on vacation, I really just want to go on leisurely walks…explore neighborhoods to find delicious restaurants and fun coffee shops…nap/lounge around…rinse and repeat. This is also true on long weekends at home, or even longer staycations–except of course it’s cheaper to do it at home. 2. But it’s nice to be away from all the “shoulds” of home, and my ongoing mental to-do list. 3. I always think I’m going to get lots of writing done. This is a lie, especially if seeing/visiting family is involved. (I miss my folks and want to spend tons of time with them when I can. Thank goodness I’m an introvert and need recharge time, and thank goodness they’re all fine with that.) The only time it ever happens is if the vacation is designated as a writing retreat and nothing else. Even then, 4 or 5 solid hours a day is my limit. Otherwise, it’s 1 or 2 hours, tops. 4. Maybe that’s okay. After all, a person needs some time off from the little niggling voice in the back of the brain that says “You should be writing!” 5. My mattress is clearly too soft,…

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