Thursday, February 23, 2023
I’m on vacation. Something like that. Ok. Here’s a sweeping generalization. I’ve kind of been on vacation most of my life. I’ll explain. Yes, there have been times in life when I have felt like I wasn’t on vacation, particularly as a result of supporting my Mom over the last few years of her life. But all-in-all, I’ve been on vacation a very long time.
How could this be? Have I not worked all through the years? Yes. I’ve worked a lot. I’ve even worked a lot of unpaid overtime hours, most recently in my librarian career, because I loved it. Enjoyed it. I wanted to “get the job done”, and if it took longer than the normal workday, I did not care. My “job” was helping people find information they needed, as well as helping them utilize it properly. It was very satisfying.
To me, vacation is not a set amount of time away from work to do the things you love. Vacation is an attitude. It is a way of looking at life. “Find something you love, and you will never work a day in your life” is a quote I have seen. I have pretty much always enjoyed the “work” I have done. It is fair to say that if I did not enjoy doing something, I would not stick with it. I had a couple jobs like that. They were short term, for sure.
When you’re a kid, well, when I was a kid, I mean, we were always out playing, or inside playing: playing, playing , playing. Running through the woods, running through the fields, baseball, basketball, football, through the seasons. Catching bees and butterflies, frogs, and worms. Hide and seek, ring-a-leave-eo. Bicycling, bicycling, bicycling. Jump rope. Hop-scotch. So, from age 0 to something like 20 or so, it was a natural vacation mode. I had a paper route starting around fifth grade. I pumped gas in high school. I drove a school bus after high school for a couple of years. They easily fit into the relaxed mode of being a kid, being a teenager.
This “on vacation” attitude seemed to strengthen in me when I started working in restaurants, which was in the early 1980s at The Sesame Seed in Danbury. The Sesame Seed was mostly an organic chill time. Busy, yes. Fun, yes. Informal to the extreme. Vacation mode continued, while I worked at Chuck’s Steak House (1986-2011) and at The Harvest Restaurant & Bakery (1989-1993) in Boulder, Colorado. For several years I worked at Chuck’s and/or The Harvest, depending on where I was spending my time, of course. I moved back and forth, sort of on a whim, between CT and CO, and each restaurant was nice enough to put me on the schedule as I requested. Some summers I spent in Connecticut, some in Colorado. I had a job, but my mind and heart, they were on vacation. I’d work my butt off, when I was in “working” mode, but I also made sure I did frequent, and at times lengthy, camping trips. I took time off, 2-3 months each year, for several years. Most of these trips were out West, Colorado more likely than not, but also Utah, Arizona, California, Texas, Wyoming, and Montana. There were trips to the southern states as well. Ironically, although I visited other New England states, they were less frequented than other parts of the country.
Concerning restaurant work, it had some great benefits. The people I worked with, almost everyone, were great people who wanted to have fun in and outside of work. Most were hard working, team players. Also, scheduling was very flexible. And, due to the fact that most of the work took place in the evenings/nights, I had all day to do the fun stuff in life! Bicycling, hiking, reading, writing, and basically, playing. Then, after all the fun and games, I could go to “work.” And, I was able to utilize my time and work to obtain three college degrees. Doing that was pretty much fun stuff, too. It’s amazing what you can get done, on a “vacation” attitude.
I’ve also been blessed with great parents, who were supportive all my life, even though they thought some of my ideas and behaviors were sort of … let’s say … questionable. It has helped a great deal to have had so many kind and helpful friends, too. And it seems to me that, for a good deal of my life, God, and/or the Powers that be, were on my side. Maybe so. It all seems to have fit together naturally. I am grateful for that.
So, I can lie back on the ground, look at the sky, and relax. It’s like I’m … on vacation.
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