Vacation Update

I’m back! And I have officially returned to the daily grind…ugh. Those 8 days of fantasy living by the beach were wonderful and the relaxation was very much needed. I’m the type of person who can’t really relax or forget about my worries until I’m away from home. It doesn’t even have to be very far away! I can forget everything even during a weekend at our friends’ cottage an hour away. But another state?!?! I’m a totally different person!

You all know how crazy I am about the 4 different personality types! Well, on a normal day in my normal life I am a solid Choleric/Melancholy (driven, direct, opinionated, black and white, efficient, impatient, deep thinker, sensitive, pessimistic, detail oriented, perfectionist, etc). When I am on vactation I magically tranform into a full on Phlegmatic (laid back, easy going, quiet, relaxed, mostly listens, not opinionated, go with the flow, etc). It’s so odd. It’s like I totally forget who I am. I actually really like it. I think to myself, “this is how 1/4 of the population is all the time!” I know that I should embrace who God made me, and I’m working on it, but I wouldn’t mind having some Phlegmatic to balance me out!

Anyway, it was an awesome trip. Most of the week was sunny so I was able to lay by the pool all day and read. I actually read four 300 page books last week! It was so nice to have the time to do that. Andy and I went to Barnes and Noble on Monday after we got home and I felt like a drug addict in a meth lab! There were so many books and I wanted to figure out a way to read them all! I was seriously thinking, “How could I just hang out in the bookstore and read all day until I read every book?” I’m such a nut. I’m really thankful for my love of reading though. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that my mom read to her belly while she was pregnant, then she read to me as a baby and all throughout my childhood. My grandma Marilyn always read to me before bed…I cherish those moments still. I’m really hoping that if I do the same thing my children will love to read. I’m almost afraid that I’ll be too crazy about it and then they’ll hate reading and I’ll end up in counseling wondering what I did wrong.

I had lots of time to think while I was away. It’s so hard to see things clearly when you are right in the middle of them. I’ve been struggling with the fact that my schedule controls me and it should really be the other way around. I fill every inch of my time up with something and often it’s good stuff. I have a hard time saying no to things even good things or things I would enjoy. But then I find myself stuck in a schedule that doesn’t have any room to breath and I hate that. There was a great quote in Blue Like Jazz…it was something like, “I’m like a rechargeable flashlight; I need to be plugged in for 24 hours before you can get 10 minutes of usefulness out of me.” I know that I’m at my best when I have downtime so I’m going to commit to maintaining a less frantic schedule. I’ll let you know how it goes…

I feel like I’ve rambled on long enough now. In fact, I’m feeling a little narcissistic writing all of this anyway… the most common reason I hear for not having a blog is, “What’s so interesting about my life or my thoughts on things that people would want to read about it on a blog?”