A vacation....

The first paid vacation in five years, or so I've calculated. I'm currently sitting at my folks' place in Raleigh contemplating such. This week was very relaxing and laid back, with only a slight few bumps along the way. The most interesting thing to note about this week is that little, except for my travel plan, was planned out according to any sort of strict schedule. As a result, I intentionally had a lot of time where I was simply hanging out with no real itinerary. Sometimes, impromtpu plans emerged, sometimes I was content to just relax.

In Boston, as I may have mentioned in the previous blog, it was nice while I was just chillin' with friends to not have plans that necessitated running around trying to get places and see things but when it came to having to kill time in the city it was a bit tricky. But even still, I made plans on the fly to meet up with a friend who was staying in Boston for a few months and that killed all the time I had and I barely had to spend a dime or figure out any logistics.

My days back in NYC between returning from Boston and traveling to Raleigh were similarly spent. I ended up hanging out with a friend most of the time, which included that impromptu trip to the beach. Here in Raleigh it's been a similar scene and maybe even more laid back despite the day of my arrival being a bit hectic.

Delta cancelled my flight first of all and put me on another flight for Friday but I called and said I wanted an earlier flight. They said it was because of weather...um, it was cloudy? Anyhow, I got an earlier flight but so early was the flight that I realized that I had to drop everything and, well, pick up everything and run out the door prepacked suitcase and peanut butter and jelly sandwich in hand in order to catch said flight, still not knowing who was going to picking me up now that I'd be arriving two hours earlier. There was a lot of running to catch public transportation and I had spectacular train (and bus) luck (I was not the only New Yorker running to catch a 12 noon flight, I spoke with an out of breath Wisconsoner who had just barely made the M60 bus right behind me after having gotten off the train at Astoria Blvd). The packed bus made it to the airport at 11:15 so I was all ready to go but saw the line for security and almost freaked out because I still hadn't checked in to my flight. Because I freaking rock, I was able to get to the gate and get a seat assignment with half an hour to spare, good considering I had left my house at 9:50 and it normally takes an hour and a half to make LaGuardia airport taking only public transit.

When I got on the plane I realized that the seating assignment I was so happy to find was a window seat, was also at the front of business class with some massive foot room. My luck, which for the next two hours would be characterized by an almost pendular swing from good to bad, changed when the fattest man who could have boarded through the front door of the plane was seated next to me, almost fully negating the amount of foot room I had previously been grinning about. Luckily though, he was reseated at his own request, relinquishing my elbow space and I sat out a comfortable flight. Upon arrival in Raleigh though, I somehow managed to snap my phone while trying to call my sister (who I had begged to come pick me up). Yep, the Motorola Krave has a plastic flip that besides being gimmicky and useless (you're supposed to be able to tap the touch screen through it, thus not having to open the phone up to text, etc.), is also quite flimsy. But, and here's that pendular swing, I, for some unknown reason, had thrown my phone's headset into my suitcase the previous evening without knowing why. So, it still works thankfully, but I'm still debating getting a new one when I get back even though I had wanted to wait to get a Droid.

But anyway, I left the airport with my sister and the kids and spent the whole afternoon just doing kid stuff and having dinner with them. That night my brother arrived from Boone and we hung out all night and all day Friday. We did go have lunch with a friend but beyond that we sort of just did whatever, hung around, petted the cat, played our instruments (guitar and bass), tried to fix my brother's car stereo, photographed spiders on my parents' side porch, walked to the North Carolina Art Museum and checked out their new space, etc.

Not having to stick to a strict schedule has been both relaxing and strangely stressful though. More of the former though. I'd have liked to have had certain opportunities while being home but I've missed a few for various reasons, mainly because those opportunities were last minute, friends getting in touch last minute, me being too lazy to message people prior to leaving, etc. Since I've been so relaxed, though, about my time, it's been easier to let it go when nothing works out. Probably because not trying to fit in seeing everyone (i.e. driving all over) immediately seems like the more relaxing choice. I think I've just gotten really into the idea of taking it easy while I'm not working.

And that's what I had in mind for this vacation anyway. Granted, I didn't have a whole lot of cash to spend on a big vacation. But, either way, this is what I needed after all of the stress of the past year. Schedule changes, juggling freelance schedules, working composing gigs, not working composing gigs and starting this new voice over venture. Which is probably not nearly as stressful now as it is going to get eventually.

In a few hours, I'm going to be meeting with a graphic designer friend who is working on a new logo for me and design for my web graphics, business cards, marketing materials, etc. Excited about that. But meanwhile, I'm doing laundry...how cool is that? Last night and the night before I watched my parents' new HD TV for a while.

Tomorrow's going to be interesting though. I, once again not planning ahead (or was I), I scheduled my flight for 7am, not thinking about who would drive me to the airport or how tired I'd be. I have to go right back to work too at 11pm and work the overnight shift. So maybe it'll be better not getting much sleep tonight since it'll make me inclined to sleep during the day and so I'll have an easier time staying awake all night.

At any rate, I think I'm just about ready to reinstate routine and get back in the swing of things. On Wednesday, I'm going to reinstall my operating system and start troubleshooting. This time I have a 32 bit operating system and maybe that'll clear up some of the compatibility issues if not all of them. Then I can start composing, recording, and just generally tooling around again. For now, I'm signing off so I can get showered and get ready to meet this designer. Laters...