Code Name: Succulent – On Vacations

Vacation is an interesting concept that
I'm often told I don't understand. And I don't, in the
traditional sense. Even when I was a kid, every vacation I ever went
on required that I get up at a decent time, run all over the place
doing or seeing "stuff", falling into bed dead tired at night,
and coming home just to jump right back into daily life. I stopped
wanting to travel on vacations a long time ago, because it's just
so much work...more work than just everyday living. Yes, I love to
see and do new things, but my idea of a true vacation would be
sleeping late, doing as little as possible for the rest of the day,
maybe seeing one or two attractions and enjoying some sort of
entertainment late into the night. Aside from my husband, I don't
know anyone else who is content with that sort of vacation and we
rarely have the money to travel...and it's far more difficult than
it should be for us to actually go on vacation by ourselves.
For some reason, we always have people wanting to tag along
(friends/family) and one of my dogs needs special care, so it's
easier to just not go for the most part. Occasionally we get away for
a weekend, but it's pretty rare.

Most people I know plan a big trip and
then spend the whole time trying to make the most of wherever they
went, wearing themselves out completely before dragging their butts
back to work. That's not a vacation to me, that's just working
hard at something else for a week.

So I generally prefer to take vacation
time from work at home, using the time to sleep in later than I
normally would and get caught up on household stuff that I normally
have to work on around work. Every year my husband and I both take
the week before our Halloween party off to finish up decorations and
preparations for the party. It's a working vacation, but fun
because we're doing something we enjoy (and we sleep in/stay up
late).

This year I'd planned to take a week
off in the summer to just read and write, but that wasn't in the
cards due to a lot of unplanned work stuff. When I finally got to
take a week off this past week, there was a whole bunch of things to
deal with, because it's fall, and fall is our busiest time of the
year (not to mention we have a ton of house projects going on right
now that need attending too – a fluke that would normally not be
the case). So rather than spending my vacation from the day job
writing, I spent most of it dealing with house stuff and doctor
appointments and a crazy schedule that didn't allow much time for
relaxing. Which is fine, I guess, but I do sort of wish now that I'd
just worked through fall, since all the stuff I did would have
eventually gotten taken care of anyways, and I could have taken a
week off in the winter when things aren't so hectic.

The two things I really wanted to do
was get ahead on my blog serials, and finish revising my next novel.
I didn't accomplish either of those, so I kind of feel like the
whole week was just wasted. Live and learn, I guess. Though I did
really enjoy being at home, and doing my daily writing time in the
afternoons in my own quiet office with no distractions. That part was
absolute bliss for an hour or so every day.

In any case, it's back to the day job
tomorrow, back to my comfortable routines, and back to the 6am alarm
clock that I hate with every fiber of my being.

All this to say, I may not understand
vacations, but neither does anyone who runs around like crazy trying
to fit a year's worth of sight seeing into one week. We just spend
them differently, is all...and most of us work way too hard at it, no
matter what we happen to have planned.

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