Back to Reality

Tomorrow marks the big day: back to my real job. Being at home for three weeks has been ... Strange. Glorious. Boring. Relaxing. Uptight. When you're busy working at a job, you continually think, fantasize even, how nice it would be to have three weeks off to do nothing. But the reality is this: you're so used to being busy with a job, you don't know how to do nothing.

Now I realize that a vacation isn't the same as recuperating. But its still the same effect: there's nothing to do when you're accustomed to always doing. It takes a lot of effort to stay in bed, sleep in. While you think it would be SO luxurious to do it, your body has other plans. Being used to waking up at 4:30 am, my eyes went ZING every single morning. And there I would be ... wide awake and wondering what to do. Being in the recup mode, however, made it so that I could convince myself that I truly needed the rest, to go back to sleep. I'd flip on the news, roll over and get comfy, and doze in and out while the morning news played its way through my mind.

Afternoons were harder. I would get all set in my mind to get something done, and I would get started. Sometimes even finish what I'd started out to do! But reality meant facing up to the fact that my body needed a little more rest and I would lay down with a good book. Sometimes in the chaise lounge down at the pool for some time in the sun. (One of the benefits of living in the Valley of the Sun -- even in November, the temps are up in the 80s!)

Monday is my first day back at work. And I'm a little apprehensive about it. So many things can change in the blink of an eye in any given workplace, and my store is no exception. Will things be where I left them? Will people be in their same positions? Will anyone have left? It's been just over three weeks since I walked out of there; it feels like I've been gone forever.

The only thing I know for certain is this: Once I'm back in the swing of things, it will only be a day or two before it feels like I was never gone. Why does it happen that way?

I know that I'll be tired after the first couple of days back to work. In the meantime, I'm still trying to prep and pack and make logical decisions that go along with purchasing a home. Everything in the apartment is so topsy turvy, its a wonder I can find shoes to wear! We've disassembled the day bed, the entertainment center, the things we aren't currently using, and the things we don't think we'll need in the next 30 days.

In the meantime, I'm just forging through each day and taking what comes with a smile. Or a grin-and-bear-it kind of grin. It seems so odd to be into the Holiday Season and doing nothing that adds to the holiday spirit here at home. Hopefully, we'll close on the house early enough to be able to get the tree up and enjoy it a little bit!

Holiday HUGS to everyone!