Last night I was consumed with an intense overwhelmed feeling. I left work at 7:30 (wrapping up one project so I can get to work on two more) and decided to roam around Copley Square for a while since I hadn’t seen the light of day in, oh, twelve hours.
Then I realized they are setting up for the Boston Marathon, so I walked one block further and roamed Newbury Street instead.
After a lovely walk (where I encountered a gaggle of boys from Tufts University who were discussing the “art” of “lowering your standards on campus” … ?) I found myself in Trident Booksellers and Cafe.
I made my way through the magazine section, into the travel section and picked up a book on Barcelona (at the top of my “must visit ASAP” list) and that’s where I became inexplicably overwhelmed.
It was the oddest thing: I was surrounded by thousands of books, and then it hit me: I would never have the time to read most of these. And in such close proximity to hundreds of travel books! On places I would never have the time or money to visit! Mostly the time. Because that’s when my “remaining vacation days for the year” hit me (6 days). And I’ve only taken 4 days so far (to visit friends in Portland and San Francisco).
I tried to console myself by saying “it sounds worse in my head that it is in reality”, but I still can’t help but feel under traveled. Six days. For the next eight months. (And, of course, the occasional holiday off.) I really don’t have much time.
That’s when I gave up, put down the book on Barcelona, went into a corner and read a book called Hand Job* from cover to cover.
Sigh. Wow, what an uplifting Friday entry.
* Oh get your minds out of the gutter. It’s about hand drawn lettering/typography.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
What you need is a Canadian Vacation
http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/061205/fantasy-cocktail-league-season-1.gif
Agreed with Sarah. They tend to fix everything
Soapbox below….
I will be old on Monday. VERY OLD. My wish list is at http://www.jeffcutler.com if you want to see what I still haven’t garnered from friends, admirers and family in my 43 short years here on the blue planet.
But what I HAVE garnered is the understanding that life is about your mental and physical enjoyment. Not at the expense of others…that’s just meanness and meanness is bad.
This understanding allows me to step back a little and (using some interpretive commentary) look at my work and life balance.
Too frequently, and even more so with social media crossing into office environs, the line between smile time and desk time has been all but scrubbed away.
It’s great to love your job but sometimes the realization that the second and third and fourth and fifth project will probably be on your desk the next morning should rear its head.
Further, the understanding that you only get one cocktail hour per day and when you miss it you can never get it back.
My advice…NAY, comment, is that I strive for excellence in my work, I only do work that I love and that enriches my life (yes, money counts), and I draw an impenetrable wall around my ‘me’ time.
I’m guessing that Hand Job had some instructions on how to create a similar wall for yourself.
And yes, six days is NOT nearly enough. I would urge the office to adopt some comp-time policy so that your departure at 7:30 gets you 2.5 hours of ‘Jenny’ time.
Jeff
Can you steal co-workers vacation time? Like old school Oregon Trail style. Best looter wins!
I love the way you think.
My (other) friend Sarah wrote a travel book on Barcelona. It’s awesome. I took her to lunch one day when she was working on it.
It’s rad:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312284594
but it might be outdated. ;-)