The Meaning of Time Off

I see from my Sitemeter that folks checked in here regularly over the Christmas Holidays. Thanks! Sorry there wasn't anything new to read during that time, but vacation is over now, so regular posting will re-commence.

I'll spare you the detailed holiday post-mortem, except to say that it was great. The one exception to sparing will be in this detail: I can't recall a more relaxed Christmas, ever. After some thought, I realized the reason for that was that I was at home.

Other things contributed, of course. We had no visitors, no travel to visit relatives (Trish had to duck out for about 3.5 days for a conference, but that didn't affect MY relaxation -- well, mostly. I got to welcome her back, which was very relaxing), and most importantly, no schedules to keep. That really hit home this past Friday, as I reckoned on what today would mean. Up at 6am, get Jake off to school, the dogs fed, laundry going, etc. meet him at the bus at 3pm, off to karate at 4:15, drum practice, dinner, etc. For two weeks we got up when we were ready, did things as we pleased, and never worried about bedtimes.

The big thing there is still that two weeks. I don't think I've had a two-week break since I started working, with the exception of Jake's birth. If I was still working away from home, I might have taken 1 week off this year. And that would have been nice, but it would have been nothing compared to what we had. Instead of an extra seven days having fun, I would have spent most of them basically just marking time at the office (the period between Dec 21 and Jan 1 has got to be the most unproductive of the year).

Okay, I didn't spend that entire time laying on a couch, popping bon-bons and watching all 6 discs of the "Return of the King" Extended Edition (Jammer sez -- thumbs up!). I still had the basic cleaning and the laundry and straightening up of the after-effects of Christmas Day (that took about three days all by itself). But still, with no places to be and no marks to hit, it was still amazing laid back and restful. Mark me folks, big blocks of time are generally better for relaxation that lots of little ones.