I'm goin' to Disneyland!

I've taken a bit of a vacation for myself. It started with being extremely sick last Monday and Tuesday. I had to call in to work and sit on the couch with nothing to do but watch TV and movies for two days. Then, although I went back to work, I still felt pretty crappy most days. Not so much sick as sapped of energy. So, I worked two shifts on Wednesday, both of which we high intentisy tasks that didn't allow for a lot of downtime so I was OK. Thursday was my regular day off and I couldn't get the girl that had covered my shifts to actually switch shifts so I had to take it as a day off. Since I was still without energy, I did not use this big empty day to do all of the things I should have done while I was sick. I spent the day doing crafts. Now, I had to do these crafts. A woman had commissioned me to do a guestbook for her wedding reception like the bowl she had bought and I had told her it would be done Monday. Also, I had totally run out of quotes that were printed out and since no printer will talk to my old computer with the funky operating system, I'm having to reformat it on Jeff's roommate's computer so that I will be able to use her printer. So, I spent the day wandering between the decoupage station I had set up on Jeff's porch and sitting with Anne's laptap, doing possibly my favorite mindless thing in the world: downloading neat fonts and using those to make a document look cool. I have 26 pages of quotes in 8-point Ariel font that I have to apply new and bigger fonts to. It's taking forever and I love it! OK, big dork, sorry.

I think Thursday was possibly a perfect day. Jeff and I both had the day off and both puttered around his house working on laid-back projects. I had the foresight to bring all the things I needed for the guestbook, so it was as good as doing it at my house. Jeff was in his sewing room with a new machine that he was cleaning so we didn't bump into each other much. After an entire day of this, our friends Rachel and Quinn came down the mountain with their baby Owen and Stephanie, who lives in their yard, came too. We had a little BBQ and then made wine with plums Rae-Rae had picked. Rachel and Stephanie are two of my favorite women on the island and the fact that they arrive with a baby and sauteed vegetables for the grill doesn't hurt. So, a perfect day.

I think after Thursday, I just needed to stay on vacation for a little while. It's important to listen to your body and my body was telling me not to go back to working out and making phone calls. In fact, although I needed the money, I went home early from the Excahnge on Friday and took a nap. So, for the days between Thursday and today, I've woken up every morning and simply asked myself, "What do you want to do today?" Except for shifts at work, I have allowed myself to do whatever I want, rather than to do the things that need to be done. To be honest, the list of things that SHOULD be done wasn't large, (a benefit of island living) but the freedom of not making myself use the vegetables from my CSA and just eating eggs on mayonaise toast or macaroni and cheese or not calling back the few people that have called since I was sick has been delightful. How many days do we truly wake up with an empty slate for our schedule? An when we do, how often do we do the leisure things that we SHOULD finish, because we have this nagging sense that some projects should be finished before others are begun? Pfff.

I am going back to responsiblity today. The vacation is over. Here's my to-do list:
1. blog
2. Pay Progressive bill (get in under 10-day grace period deadline)
3. Work on T-shirt design for the Exchange
4. Format more quotes
5. Print more quotes (Selling like hotcakes at the Farmer's Market)
6. Call Harold, Liz and Andrew
7. Research and sign up to take the GRE and PRAXIS tests
8. email Phyllis with beet soup recipe
9. Start working out again
10. Finally finish unpacking my room

Tough, huh.