take a vacation

my partner’s health took a turn for the worse, and i ended up taking him to the emergency room thanksgiving eve, three days before my “vacation at home” was to start. i’m glad i’d planned to take the time off anyway, and could easily spend my days with him at the hospital and then at the rehabilitation center he entered a week later.

it was a relief that i’d thoroughly purged my todo lists before this started, and didn’t have unresolved work on my mind during this time. i got a good bit of reading done while he was sleeping, and put in some time with music in the mornings and evenings. it’s been fairly easy to get back into the swing of work thanks to the pre-vacation preparation. by getting up early, i’ve been able to get my work done before heading over to be with him.

i’m glad i still have a lot of vacation time available; we’ll see what the coming months bring.

i can’t plan any travel right now because of my partner’s health problems, but i have 30 days of unused vacation time piled up, with five days lost forever due to not taking it. i decided to just take some time off, and asked for 12/1-12/12. with the weekends, that will be 16 days altogether.

i plan to do everything that was on my todo list for those dates between now and the end of the month, then have no plan for that time. for at least the first week, i want to lock the laptop away and have no internet access. looking forward to getting out of the routine and taking a fresh breath.

my week offline was wonderful. i didn’t touch the computer for nine days and didn’t set the alarm for most of them. everything important got done without the help of a todo list. the days gradually grew back to their true length, instead of disappearing down a black hole of unfinished tasks. i’m slashing my todo list today, deleting the oldest undone items on it. i need to keep spending more and larger chunks of time offline and relearning how to let small bad things happen and how few things are important.

i’m wrapping things up and putting my usual routine out of sight and, hopefully after a few days, out of mind. see you on the other side!

i’ve claimed some of the time due me, and am taking off 4/14-4/18, effectively nine days with the weekends. i’ve decided to make no plans for going anywhere during this time. instead, i’m going to:

1. print my whole todo list friday night and file it away.
2. put the laptop in a closet in the basement.
3. not touch either of the above until at least wednesday.

i imagine i’ll get some overdue garden and housework done in this week, but mostly i just want a few days with no prescribed schedule, when i wake and do whatever i feel like doing. what new ideas will occur when i have extended time to think? what will i realize i really want to do that’s getting lost in all the things i “should” do? when i come back to my todo list, how many things will i just scratch off as unnecessary?

this is what i need now, and i think this regrouping and head clearing will make it easier to get away on trips away from home this summer.

i get too busy and forget that a vacation is a possibility. then, when i remember it, i ask what i would do with myself. (diving back into music often comes as the reply.) i should just do it in 2008.

working from home, i think i’ve always felt a little guilty about the
idea of taking a vacation—a vacation from what? i feel so privileged
to be able to make my own work schedule that i never take an extended
block of time away. i haven’t claimed a single day of sick or vacation
time this year, and have six weeks piled up and ready to roll over to
2008. i feel an urge to take the plunge and see what it’s like to force
myself to ignore my employer completely for a month or more.