Relaxing

Currently, I’m taking my first vacation since I started work in January. It is basically my first vacation, ever (I think it’s not really a vacation if you’re still in the education system, because of The Guilt). There is nowhere I should be, and nothing else I should be doing, than this.

It’s nice to take a break.

I read a blog, ages ago, by Penelope Trunk (I think), saying that if you like your life you shouldn’t want to take a vacation from it. And I did think at first that it would be nice to just stay put. I flit about enough anyway, that flitting about is what I do, and thus doing more of it is not a break from the norm. But, if I didn’t have a flight to catch, I would have ended up continuing to work last Friday. It would be easy to do other, non-work work too. This way, I’m free.

My boyfriend and I are with my parents, taking a tour of Nova Scotia and heading to Prince Edward Island. One night in Halifax, two in Lunenberg, one in Wolfville, a night in Picktou. Then, four days in Charlottetown. I don’t like repacking my suitcase every morning, so I’m looking forward to being somewhere for longer.

I’ve been reading a novel a day. Along with chunks of non-fiction (finished one, read another, started third). It’s nice to be away, chill out, be by the sea.

But – it’s not what I would choose for a break, if I were organizing things. I’d choose a city or a spa. A city – because I wish I lived a city life, and unfortunately that is not an option just now. It’s nice to go and visit. A spa, because I would like to have a more relaxed existence, where I made more time for exercise and, frankly, had more spa treatments.

My idea of a vacation would be to go and spend time in the places I wish my real-life had more of.

That being said, it’s nice when someone else decides and organizes things. One, because then I don’t have to decide or organize, but also because you get a different experience than the one you would have picked.

Which might sound like a weird thing to want, but this is why I like other people choosing me jewelry. I find myself buying similar things, over and over again. The ones I love most are always a bit more unexpected, that someone else choose for me, and I wouldn’t have chosen for myself.