Last week, my employees at CVS asked me where I was going on my vacation. "Lovely downtown Fairfax City," I told them. Some of them got the joke and some didn't. See, I live in Fairfax City and I was planning on taking the most glorious of all vacations: at home. Alone.
Today was Day 6 out of the 10 days of my personal space-time. Like most other days, today's morning ritual was unchanged. Up around 9. Logged onto the computer. Made a full pot of coffee. Lit up a cigarette. Checked my emails. Tickled the cat. Looked out the front windows as the school bus picked up the kids across the street. Clicked on the TV. Clicked off the TV. Powered up some U2 in the
CD player. Scratched.
As for the rest of the day, well, I exchanged the coffee for some wine, surfed the web, went through a couple of packs of smokes, showered around 4, did a little bit of laundry, and marveled at how the cat can sleep all day. And that's pretty much a normal Vacation Day for me. I go out maybe twice: once to Burger King and once to get the Washington Post from the driveway (or combine the two, if I plan ahead). Barney strolls in around 6 and we watch TV for most of the night. And then after he slips off to bed ("I'm just gonna go lay down for awhile." Yeah, right.), I'm back on the computer writing or ICQing until 1 or 2.
Productive? Oh, hell no. And that's the whole freakin' point. For me, this kind of vacation has much more value than productivity. I can clean out the fridge or fix the back screen door anytime, but how often am I relaxed enough (and have the time) to watch the leaves blow around in tiny wind circles on the back deck--for a full 30 minutes? It's all mental health, baby. It's how I refuel. It's important. Very important. It's fabulous.
Last April I took a similar Home Vacation and spent each day tormenting the working class with I'm-On-Vacation-And-You're-Not emails. Each day I would write up some elaborate email about what I was doing each hour of the day (11:05 am: Got up…..11:10 am: Tried to figure out what day it was…..11:15 am: Back to bed) or make up fake newspaper articles about my vacation ("Local Man Sneers From Rooftop At Morning Commuters") and send it out to whoever was at work. Yeah, I was laughing it up. But then I realized that the joke was on me: I had all this free time and I was spending it on them. What an damn idiot!
So I made sure I didn't make the same mistake on this vacation. Emails have been
sparse. And I'm not even thinking about answering the phone. Sorry, but it's all about Me this week. I deserve it, I need it and I'll take it.
Then again, maybe just one wouldn't hurt.....I'm on vacation and you're not!
Enough! I'm off to do some scratching.....
