“Remoted” – Workday 102 / Day 140 (Monday)

Last Monday before vacation. Well, staycation. The countdown to Friday at noon is on. Right now, the plan is for a week of a lot of not much. And reading. Two new books arrived today, and Mom gave me a book on Saturday, so the reading list is in good shape. There are still two puzzles untouched from a couple months ago. The entertainment itinerary is looking good.

I did not always do staycation. Things used to be very different.

Staycation reading list!

Once upon a glorious time, I had a jet-setter life. There were cruises and trips to Paris, Reykjavik, Toronto, Quebec City, Montrea, Cabo, Seoul, Vegas, San Diego, Santa Monica. I was single for much of this jet-set life, with no pets and plenty of income to finance travel. It was fun and exciting. But life changes. Not always for the better.  Not necessarily worse, either, just changed.

While married and living in Tennessee, there were vacations spent with one or the other of our families and sometimes both Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in a single road trip. There was a cruise, and a family fishing trip to Gananoque, Ontario and The 1,000 Islands. There were short camping trips that always seemed to involve thunderstorms. There were seven years of fantasy plans for a return trip to Seoul, but we got busy with jobs and arguing, and then we were divorced. Single life in Tennessee meant most of my vacations involved going home to Massachusetts. Once I had pets, the cost of travel increased dramatically due to pet boarding, which was often as much, or more than the cost of my airfare.

Returned from Tennessee with two dogs has pretty much sealed my life of staycations. The cost of dog boarding is crippling. I have no interest in traveling alone, partly because the single traveler penalty is brutal. Everything is priced “per person, double occupancy.” Sometimes, it really sucks being a singleton. Even when I was miserably married, I at least still had someone to travel with.

Staycation weeks follow a rather predictable course. There is pretend planning with non-committal musings for day trips like “maybe I’ll go for a hike,” or, “I could go to the beach.” These vague ideas usually fall victim to procrastination, laziness, or discomfort with doing everything alone. Sometimes there is mild guilt which may or may not lead to action. There have been past vacation solo activities executed purely to not feel like a loser upon returning to work with no answer for the inevitable question, “Did you do anything on your vacation?”

Right now, there are no commitments for vacation next week, but I have the pandemic on my side. I’m not a loser this year, I’m staying home for the greater good. My annual lovely, lonely leisure time will be an entire week without logging in to work. It will be like 90% of my weekends all year long, just longer. I already can’t wait. There are new books.