Last week, I was on vacation. You probably discovered this
fact when you came to this site and saw my note saying as much. At this point
you probably felt a rush of emotion ranging from sad to happy to exultation to
mild annoyance to sleepy and finally apathetic resignation. We’ve all been
there.
And to answer your first and only question: No, I didn’t go
anywhere—unless the hardware store multiple times a day counts as a vacation
destination*.
Since every moment is a teachable one, here are the things I
learned:
1.
It takes
about four days to stop thinking about work. You know the routine: You think
about looming projects when you wake up, you check email several times a day, and
you can’t fully relax because you have a gnawing sense you’re forgetting
something. Yeah, that wears off by Tuesday for me.
2.
The
weather doesn’t take a day off. Plan all you want: Mom Nature don’t take no
reservations. So be prepared to pour that concrete on Wednesday and clean out
your basement on Tuesday instead.
3.
There
will be blood. It doesn’t matter if you’re moving heavy furniture or
hanging a picture of a kitten, you will always end up bleeding at some point.
4.
Green
Lantern was a rather disappointing movie. The CGI was surprisingly
rudimentary and the plot was surprisingly overly complicated. Swap those two
around and you might have something worth watching. Moonrise Kingdom was pretty
good though. See that.
5.
When it
comes to Halloween costumes, don’t get cute. I felt bad about recycling a
past costume—Charlie Brown—so I thought I’d update it with a sheet with holes
cut out of it—Charlie Brown going as a ghost. Pretty Meta, right? Also, pretty
stupid waste of time when the first friend I talked to said, “What are you … a
holy ghost?” Off with the sheet. On with the fun.
6.
I love me
some naps. That’s not code for anything**. I took a 10-minute nap every
afternoon and it was awesome. Seriously, you should close your eyes more often.
*It doesn’t.
**Actually, it’s code for lightly dozing on my couch.
