Notes on a Staycation

"I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything that I thought it could be." - Peter Gibbons, Office Space.

As many of you know I took this past week off. Invariably when you come back everyone ends up asking you about it. Where did you go? What did you do?
The short answers are ‘nowhere’ and ‘as little as possible’ but these don’t really answer the question so let me tell you in some detail. I am not a wealthy person but setting aside time like this made me feel like I was. Taking time off like this, to me, was the height of luxury.
I spent my time sitting quietly and enjoying the weather when it was nice (which was most of the time). I reflected on my life, on all the things I’ve done and speculated on what I might like to do later. I swam, tanned, napped and drank beer a lot. I had friends over, enjoyed some excellent meals and didn’t worry about my diet at all. I played really lousy tennis until my limbs ached and then went back in the pool. I went to a museum with a friend and explored a lot of Star Trek stuff. I spent long hours under the stars, in front of the fire, talking about futurism, ethics, language, poetry and music. I watched movies and laughed at the bad ones and enjoyed the good ones. I listened to a lot of music both old and new. I caught up on sleep and with people I had lost contact with. I reinforced some old bridges and built some new ones with the people in my life who were around. I enjoyed a long, deliberate sense of not needing to be reliable, punctual or responsible for a while.
Now maybe sometimes you have to jump on a plane and travel half way around the planet to ‘get away from it all’ to do all this, but this time I stayed right where I was and let it come to me.