Back to work

I have been on vacation for the past ten days. They weren’t structured in a way ideal for me to feel rested, but it was  still time off. Three mini events broke it up: a Ravinia weekend, a trip to Springfield, and a Fourth of July barbeque at home.

Ravinia was fun and less stressful than I imagined because the alcohol was kept in check. The weather wasn’t cooperative, being rainy and quite cool. The music made up for it and being able to talk with friends.

Springfield would take an entry of it’s own. There was enough to see in the two days that we were there. I walked enough to feel like I wasn’t skimping on exercise and just eating and looking at things all day. I needed to get away from the city and home for a little.  This trip was low key and just enough.

The last was the holiday party. Justin wanted a small Rock Band get togther. It went well. I had recently got a new puzzle and it took the attention all the guests with an art bent. I think it was complete in record time at about two hours. I put it away after the party in favor of  using the card table to finish the GoodReads database update that I wanted to do. It was messed up enough to need an overhaul.

The down side of vacation was that I caught some sort of bug. I’ve had a hoarse throat for five days now. The past few night have been difficult to sleep because I get phlemy the moment I lay down. Just had a hard time sleeping last night and I may sleep on the couch tonight.

I tried not to think about work during vacation. I wasn’t always successful, but I did shut it down when it happened. I’m looking forward to this mornings work because I have planning scheduled. Other than a meeting this afternoon, I can get a lot of stuff sorted out today. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, because I feel like I’m in limbo about how to set up for the future.

Through all of this I am trying to be gentle with myself. I have written a lot privately about the two sided nature of enough: recognizing when I am enough and when I can’t be enough. This mild illness has put that to the test. But I feel better about being able to function in a way that works for me. I’m getting better at making myself be a priority.