Were you expecting me to have an epic story to tell you about going to NASA and piloting the space shuttle, or Universal Studios to do all the fun stuff there? Were you expecting to hear about more escapades with Jon and Lauren, or even a trip down the water slides? Yeah, be prepared for thorough disappointment as I describe the most boring day of the trip.
I woke up at 8, and went back to bed until around 10. I went to have breakfast at 11, and did so, at the last restaurant that was serving breakfast today. I got a $4 cappuccino, which was excellent, by the way. Why was I lazy? Simple: today, I had cell signal and a basically-empty boat. I caught up on some work – literally, I answered some e-mails and did phone support for a client, though that half-hour phone call saved my boss a whole lot of lost time, and fixed a start page hijack for a client of my own. I caught up on a few TV episodes, wrapped up and posted yesterday’s blog entry, and had a super-late lunch or super-early dinner, or whatever you want to call “the meal after breakfast that happens at 4:00PM” – admittedly an excellent grilled salmon filet; I’m still getting the hang of just up-and-leaving the table when I’m done eating at a sit-down restaurant because I always feel like I’m walking the check. I got 10 out of 20 questions right in a quiz game about different national flags; Sheldon Cooper would be saddened, especially because I missed Greece and Argentina. About the only reason I left my stateroom today was either to eat, or because housekeeping needed to work their magic. The highlight of my day was taking that picture of lightning, which was really a single frame of a video, falsely colored in Photoshop. I made a few phone calls to people. I started writing this blog entry. I called dad for a few minutes, and shortly thereafter, I headed into the magic/comedian show, whose highlight was an incredibly hyperactive eight year old with an “all-in” laugh and a propensity to handle his nether regions despite being on a stage in front of hundreds of people; said eight-year-old had the crowd laughing far beyond the comedian himself. I’m wrapping up my blog entry for tonight, and debating whether to head to sleep, play Mass Effect, or see if Jon and Lauren are up at the club, and either way, try talking to some new people. I also learned that I’ve been racking up $13.50/day on gratuities by default, so leaving 5-spots for housekeeping each evening as I’ve been doing thus far is either super-generous, or redundant; I can’t decide which.
I summed up the totality of my day in twelve sentences. The half dozen of you who have been compulsively pressing ‘refresh’ since Sunday evening know that I’ve written more about some of the meals I’ve had, and Sara, if you’ve decided to swing by and start reading the saga, I’m sure your other half will tell you that most of the e-mails I write him are longer than that. Most of you are probably thinking that today was wasted, or that I shouldn’t have been working, or that I should make it a point to meet more people because I’ll never see them again, or that I shouldn’t play Mass Effect as much as I am…and I understand where all of that is coming from, and it’s not entirely unwarranted. On the other hand, with Sunday having been a day filled with analysis paralysis, and yesterday the day where I met friends who, though well-meaning, spent a whole lot of time trying to ‘fix me’ despite only knowing me for an hour before doing so…today was probably the day I was the happiest and most relaxed out of all of them, and as I’m writing this, I finally figured out why: the essence of what truly makes this a vacation is the lack of a packed, crammed schedule. Today was simply the day in which that was most strongly felt.
Vacations have two modes, relaxing periods and exploring periods. People may dedicate a particular vacation to one over the other but it is certainly possible to have the best of both on the same vacation. There’s no harm, no foul to just break the normal routine and relax or trying something unique. The only thing to avoid is the pressure to do anything, especially the first few days. The start of a vacation for someone that works all the time is to accept the challenge to decompress.
You were right to explore your new surroundings on the first day. That makes it easier to establish and adjust to a temporary routine full of options you don’t usually have available back home. You were also correct when you said I scheduled the days. One of the best parts of the one cruise I went on was the times I got up solo and ate breakfast in multiple cafes as I walked laps around the deck, watching the sunrise, and seeing faces in the gym, seminars, crew, etc. that I meet the day before. Having a loose grip on a daily schedule works great when I travel by myself because I get to take advantage of impromptu opportunities I hadn’t thought of while still doing some of the stuff I planned and finding time to rest and do the necessary tasks. Bottom line, a little more sun and a little less stress.
Your describing what most people would call a typical Saturday in their lives, which is when usually not much gets done other than oversleeping, eating and maybe hanging out at the mall or movies later in the day (maybe).
But a vacation doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be doing all sorts of fun activities all the time. Simply being able to oversleep without worrying about the alarm clock going off and ‘having to get up’,….. or just lounging around your room, is in itself a *time of rest*, which is the real purpose of a vacation anyway.
Of course, if that’s all that’s going to be done, then a ‘stay-cation’ may be more ideal since it’s cheaper to just stay home and do nothing than go on an expensive cruise, but that would be for the rest of the world. For you I don’t think that would work at all since staying at home still means having full access to both your car, your multiple cell phones, and the internet 24/7….. and knowing you – that means finding something work related to keep yourself busy – either for your job, your own clients, your church media ministry, or your friends that need help with their stuff. So being in a place where you don’t have full access to most of that is a break away from the norm, and probably the only place that YOU can have a true ‘stay-cation’. LOL.
Bottom line, the point of a vacation is to not-be-busy and just relax, so even if the day was rather boring (as you call it), it was still a day where you didn’t ‘have to’ get out of bed, go anywhere, or do absolutely anything, unless you actually wanted to. So I don’t think it was a wasted day – just a relax/chill day – which you certainly are *not* accustomed to, and definitely need to have more of,….. so enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!! ;-)
It sounds like you are doing what you set out to do – whatever you feel like doing. I am glad that you are able to do so. You might enjoy some other types of activities tomorrow, and then again you might not. This is your special time, so continue to enjoy it in the way that relaxes and benefits you the most.