Vacationing at Home
"I have the pussy so I make the rules."
- seen on a random woman's shirt while buying charcoal at Ace Hardware
As part of my company's cost cutting measures I have been on unpaid leave this past week. Instead of going to Southern California or to San Francisco--which is usually what I will do when I have more than two days off of work--I chose to vacation at home this time.
Towards the end of 2008 I had a conversation with Aunt Shelly about staying at home for a vacation. She warned me about making such a decision, stating that she did this once and felt more tired when she returned to work after the break than before she left. I spoke with my friend Wade about such a phenomenon and he offered the following piece of advice: "Do one or two productive things per day."
From what I have gathered from Wade's maxim combined with personal experience, there is a fine balance between optimal enjoyment and sheer boredom while a person is on vacation. The normal guidelines for productivity are thrown out the window, and it can feel like one has an absolute Ocean of Time on their hands. But Time is tricky thing; that Ocean can evaporate really quickly. If one is not careful, you can find yourself listing your two achievements for the day as (1) bathing and (2) taking a nap for five continuous days--I know from firs thand experience.
On Monday I started the day off with a swim lesson, cleaned the house, and finished off the day with some weight training. Tuesday, I took a field trip to a grocery store called Ranch Market--which caters to the enormous hispanic population living here in Phoenix--with a friend I haven't seen in over four years; we had a fabulous lunch of ceviche and street tacos, and practiced our Spanish. Today I made a return trip to Ranch Market as I was craving carne asada; the woman in the taco line gave me a strange look when I ordered six carne asada street taco. I didn't care. I was on vacation.
Tonight my friend Jeff came over for dinner--I needed a test subject for my barbeque chicken as this was the first time I had made it--and to watch Lost. The chicken turned out well, but due to technical difficulties we missed the first 35 minutes of the television show. While we were waiting and praying for the show to come on, we killed half of a blueberry pie and chatted.
So far, Wade's advice has been absolutely spot-on. I've been able to feel good about the use of my time, and get some much needed "down-time" as well. As far as unpaid time being a "bad" thing, I think I've been able to make the most of it.
Namaste
- seen on a random woman's shirt while buying charcoal at Ace Hardware
As part of my company's cost cutting measures I have been on unpaid leave this past week. Instead of going to Southern California or to San Francisco--which is usually what I will do when I have more than two days off of work--I chose to vacation at home this time.
Towards the end of 2008 I had a conversation with Aunt Shelly about staying at home for a vacation. She warned me about making such a decision, stating that she did this once and felt more tired when she returned to work after the break than before she left. I spoke with my friend Wade about such a phenomenon and he offered the following piece of advice: "Do one or two productive things per day."
From what I have gathered from Wade's maxim combined with personal experience, there is a fine balance between optimal enjoyment and sheer boredom while a person is on vacation. The normal guidelines for productivity are thrown out the window, and it can feel like one has an absolute Ocean of Time on their hands. But Time is tricky thing; that Ocean can evaporate really quickly. If one is not careful, you can find yourself listing your two achievements for the day as (1) bathing and (2) taking a nap for five continuous days--I know from firs thand experience.
On Monday I started the day off with a swim lesson, cleaned the house, and finished off the day with some weight training. Tuesday, I took a field trip to a grocery store called Ranch Market--which caters to the enormous hispanic population living here in Phoenix--with a friend I haven't seen in over four years; we had a fabulous lunch of ceviche and street tacos, and practiced our Spanish. Today I made a return trip to Ranch Market as I was craving carne asada; the woman in the taco line gave me a strange look when I ordered six carne asada street taco. I didn't care. I was on vacation.
Tonight my friend Jeff came over for dinner--I needed a test subject for my barbeque chicken as this was the first time I had made it--and to watch Lost. The chicken turned out well, but due to technical difficulties we missed the first 35 minutes of the television show. While we were waiting and praying for the show to come on, we killed half of a blueberry pie and chatted.
So far, Wade's advice has been absolutely spot-on. I've been able to feel good about the use of my time, and get some much needed "down-time" as well. As far as unpaid time being a "bad" thing, I think I've been able to make the most of it.
Namaste
posted by Zen_Accountant at 3:32 PM
1 Comments:
So glad your "staycation" was enjoyable and productive. I'm going to give it a whirl the second week in April. Is home the new Hawaii?
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