The World According to Benet

Trying to Relax on Vacation

How sad is this? I decided to come up to Boston for a few days of vacation, with child in tow, to visit one of my best friends from college. Lauren actually lives in Ipswich, an idyllic rural town about 20 miles outside the city. She runs a horse farm and raises chickens -- bad for my allergies, but good for my daughter, who recently asked her grandfather to buy her a pony.

I made the mistake of bringing up my company-issued Palm Treo, so I'm getting work calls and email all day. I've become so addicted to this thing that I'm typing along as my child helps to feed the chickens (I did take photos with the phone), gather fresh eggs and actually sit on said pony (she now says she doesn't want one).

I tried to put the phone away, but I kept thinking of things that I had forgotten to do or some idea I needed to pass along. So after a nice lunch, we decide to spend the afternoon at Crane Beach. Mama just loves the beach, and so does baby.

It was a beautiful day yesterday, even though the water was freezing. Right then and there the light bulb went on -- whatever work-related items there are could wait. I turned off the phone, buried it deep in the beach bag and went out to the water with my daughter. She had fun and so did I.

Which leads to the question -- what did we do on vacation in the pre-PDA/cell phone era? There was a scene in the "Sex And The City" movie where Miranda is staying, with the girls, at a beautiful Mexican beach resort, and the first thing she asks for is wifi access. I admit, I left my laptop at home, but I did download some projects on my thumb drive, with plans to do some work late at night or early in the morning.

The word vacation means to vacate - vacate work, responsibilities, projects, etc. - and just relax. Why has it become so hard to do that? Do we see ourselves as indispensable? Are we worried about the stability of our jobs? Have our bosses, by giving us Treos/Crackberries, etc., come to expect us to be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- even on vacation?

This has been an eye opener for me. I have another vacation planned July 2-8, and I'm seriously thinking about leaving the phone at home -- or at least turning off the email function. We'll see what happens.

And now, for the weight part of our program. There's no news because I'm on vacation and didn't go to my weigh-in. But I did eat sensibly and worked out every day, so here's hoping I managed to drop a pound or two. So I'm now going back to my vacation, already in progress...

posted by Benét @ 6:54 AM