I logged into WordPress for my usual stats check, and had a look at my site. I discovered my post title still had a the colon from the original title. I forgot to press the backspace key one more time, and had an awkward sentence later in the post. I blinked a couple of times then thought my vacation can’t come fast enough.
I will take a couple of weeks off to wake up naturally, or wake up early for some other purpose not involving taking a bus to get to work. I feel punchy, and the new academic year comes closer each day. Around August we see dazed, and slightly confused, first year students. Sprinkled in the newbies, the second years return ready to finish their programs, and head out to work. Most programs at the college, with a few exceptions, are two-year diploma programs. My library technician diploma took two years. Go in, work like a person on fire, and head out into your field. It took me until 2014 to get permanent work, and I already began with three weeks vacation. After years of switching from teaching to book retail, then going back to school for my diploma, things like stability and benefits feel like hard-won privileges.
When a library tech graduates, unless they get lucky, it’s term and contract jobs for a while. I juggled three positions twice since my 2009 graduation. Money played one role, but I really wanted skills. I wanted to apply my skills, and I wanted a few new ones. Believe it nor not, Twitter was a skill I picked up at one of my library positions. I learned about a social network, and how to tame my wordy self in the process.
Now I learn a new skill–the fine art of doing nothing. Doing nothing requires skill, and it seems easy. In fact it’s difficult as little voices come into play, urging me to be ‘productive’. Usually, they take on one, familiar voice telling me to clean my condo. I have learned to flick off the switch, turning a page in my latest read. I got better at even closing the door on my day. Once I leave work everything stays on the other side until the morning. I plan to do the same for the two-week sabbatical.
Top of the list involves something I pay for in common elements fees, but never used since I moved in 2011. I have a pool in my complex. It has lounge chairs, the sun doesn’t hit to hard, and I have a bathing suit. Most of the time, the same residents simply lay around until their skin turns a caramel colour. I get naturally darker, but I don’t want to age faster by sitting out in the sun. What happens if a person sun bathes too much?
Call it a vacation or a staycation, but I call it a brain reset; Nothing gets accomplished without it. For the record it’s six working days and counting.
Unpaused Life 