On Taking Time Off

I'm the kind of person who feels guilty for taking time off of work.  Especially when I read the e-mails about being short-staffed and needing more people to come into work.  But the past year has been filled with adventures and stresses and worries for Scott and I, and we needed a break.  So for his Spring Break, we hopped on a plane and headed down to Tampa where my grandfather lives for a quick visit.  My mom and brother drove down with Gracie Lou to meet us, and we've spent the week enjoying what Florida is best known for: it's sunshine.

I've been fantasizing about this trip for the past couple of weeks and started packing my bag a week in a advance.  The trip was sort of thrown together on a whim once I got approval from work to have time off, but I've been looking forward to it ever since the day I booked our flights.  I had plans to enjoy the sun, work out a lot (so many pretty places to run around here), cook a lot for my family, read books, work on grad school applications, etc.  All the things.

The moment (I'm not even exaggerating here, it was the exact moment) I stepped off of the plane into Tampa I felt that dry, scratchiness that you get in the back of your throat right before you get sick.  That feeling that tells you that something is coming and you'd better take all of the Emergen-C, echinacea, and zinc you can lay your hands on before your body gets slammed with illness.  Instead of doing all of those things, I brushed it off and assumed that my allergies were getting the best of me.  I remembered my bottle of Allegra sitting in my medicine cabinet at home and cursed myself for not remembering to grab it before we left for the airport.  A quick stop at the drug store and I'd be allergy-free by the next day.

Except I wasn't.  The symptoms became more and more horrible, from a runny nose to a stuffed nose, dry throat, hoarse cough, wheezing, and general asthmatic mayhem.  I've continued to go out in the sun each day, determined to at least mark a few things off of my vacation checklist: reading and tan lines.

But in a way, it's been nice to have real time off.  Time when my body hasn't allowed me to burn the candle at both ends.  Vacation has truly been just that-- vacating from responsibilities and to-do lists and taking care of other people.  No, I didn't kick start my summer work outs with running every day and swimming in the pool.  I didn't finish my grad school applications, either.  But I did lay in the sun every day with a good book, and I have now managed to finish four books for fun (reviews to come when I return to Indy).

I think sometimes our bodies know when we need to rest, and they often find unusual ways to let us know that we need to slow down.  While I've hated the wheezing and coughing and boxes of tissues, I've enjoyed the sun and the stillness and the satisfaction of closing another book.  Who knows, if I hadn't gotten sick here on vacation I would have likely been sick at home and would have had to miss work anyways, so maybe things have a funny little way of working out in that sense.  Better to be sick in paradise than sick in the arctic tundra of Indianapolis.

I was hoping I'd be writing a lot while I was down here, but for obvious reasons, I've not been doing so.  I have so many things I want to say, posts I want to write, chapters of my book to form.  But for now, I'm going to step away so I can finish another book.  Productivity will have to wait for another day.

Lots of love and hoping you all are having a great week-- it seems that the weather is looking up all over the country! Sending warm wishes to your corner of the world.

XO,
Cristina