Trippy

I’m going on vacation soon. And while there is still the task tension of getting the mail stopped and packing the perfect clothes and worrying about the house and dog care, it feels different on this side of the employment line.

I don’t need the vacation to re-charge, catch up on my sleep or have some “me” time. I don’t have to worry about “out of office” messages or who is in charge of what while I’m gone. I don’t need to worry about being “punished” for going on vacation and coming back to my email inbox full beyond my capacity to reply and me taking days to dig out. I don’t even have to worry about my vacation days being eaten up. Because when I come back, I’ve got more where they came from.

Weird...it's almost like I'm taking a vacation from vacation. What do I need an escape from? Nothing. It's not like I am checking my blackberry before I go to bed and before I have my morning coffee and shower, it's not like I'm going to meetings about planning for upcoming meetings, which drove me nuts, it's not like I'm setting the alarm clock every day and hitting the snooze button as a sign of protest, it's not like I have to feel guilty because I have to look for my ID badge, because I never put it in the same place in my bag, and hold up the elevator queue.

Maybe on my vacation I need to recover from missing these things...Working with others towards a common purpose, laughing at meetings and not taking ourselves too seriously, being around really smart, caring and impressive colleagues, leading a team of super bright and talented folks, feeling wonderfully exhausted after an intense week of making good things happen.

When I get back from this vacation from my vacation, I’ll figure out how to have the best of both worlds. Until then, I’ve got to make sure my passport is still current, that I clean out the fridge so there are no science experiments when we return, that we pick up the dry cleaning and that my one client has everything he needs while I’m out of pocket for a few weeks. That is a nice, short "to do" list.