Post-Vacation Recovery

Earlier this month, I went on vacation with my family. The "re-entry" process has been interesting. At home, there was a lot of recovery to do - bills to pay, souvenirs to sort out, Christmas decorations to pull out.

For work, I was back on track fairly quickly. I had kept up on my email while I was gone, and I had lesson plans in place so I knew what I was doing when I walked back into the building. The library itself was a little "off" - books not put back in the right spots or just left laying on top of other books, other things that weren't quite the way I would have them. I think it was just the idea that several other people had been running my space for awhile - there were little hints of it here and there for the first week I was back.

The hardest adjustment, though, has been emotional. The vacation was perfect - things went smoothly; the weather was ideal. On vacation, we did what we wanted. We ate what we wanted and we went where we wanted. If we wanted to chill at the hotel, we did. If we wanted to squeeze in a few more rides somewhere, we did. If we wanted to ride Space Ranger Spin five times in a row, we could. If I didn't want to ride something, I didn't. That meant while my family rode Mission Space - twice - I sat in the sun and soaked up the view of clear blue skies and palm trees. While my family went to Epcot one morning, I went to Animal Kingdom - alone - to take pictures and do whatever I wanted. I read two novels for grown ups - great, long ones that would have taken me a month to get through at home. I had really no complaints.

Coming home meant coming back to real life. Real life is messier than vacation. In real life, people wrestle with illness, death, hurt feelings, and betrayal - all things we came home to. Tragedy strikes half a country away and still feels like a kick in the gut. We're wading through projects that need attention and 1000+ emails that need to be skimmed if not deleted outright.

I have two things to keep me going - my pictures of our vacation together (ah, the palm trees), and the first hints of planning another vacation some time in the future.