I woke up on Monday morning this week, heartened by my success at sleeping late. It is 5:40 a.m., which for 65-year-old me is akin to sleeping until noon as a college student. I smile and stretch, uplifted and excited by a weekday where I am not going to work. It is Vacation Day 4. To be clear, it is not the fourth day of a vacation. It is the fourth workday of calendar year 2020 where I have not worked.
In many ways it is my first real day off in 2020. I took a day’s leave in February, hosting a luncheon for family members. It was lovely but hectic. On Day 2, Don and I rented a small van, unloaded our storage unit, and drove to our cabin in Cle Elum to pick up some boxes temporarily sheltering in our garage. It was a satisfying day but not exactly relaxing. Vacation Day 3 was allocated to Don’s foot surgery, a day replete with gratifying tasks such as picking him up from the doctor, placing pain medication on his nightstand, and adjusting pillows under his calf to elevate his foot. Fun!
Coronavirus dictates eliminated out of town travel from consideration this year. Local excursions to our second home were complicated by son Evan, who took up full-time residence there this Spring, renouncing expensive Bellevue apartment rent in favor of parental (and benevolent) landlords. Taking time off from lawyering to just sit at home made absolutely no sense. So, I simply went to the office every day this year – unless I had something more pressing to do.
Monday was a grand experiment: just stay local but pretend I am on holiday. After a pre-dawn run and a hot shower, Don and I go to Starbucks, buying coffee for the car behind us in the drive-through. We ambled through the morning with a relaxed agenda, mixing in a few errands for structural contrast. We dropped by middle son Andy’s apartment for a quick birthday visit. We surveyed a new park that was the proposed venue for an upcoming family tailgate party. We completed a few banking tasks and mailed two packages at UPS. Don got behind the wheel of my new all-electric car for the first time and practiced driving it.
After a casual lunch at home, we turned on the television, resisting the urge to switch to a news channel. We watched a cute movie about a senior citizen interning at a technology company filled with 20-somethings. When the show was over, Don asked whether I wanted to watch another one. I could not have been more stunned than if he had told me he was going to skip a college football game because he wanted to clean our gutters. Two movies in the same day? I recall doing that once in my twenties and a couple of times on long international flights, but it just seemed so decadent. But okay, I am on holiday, so why not?
The evening wound down into a normal weeknight routine, with dog walking, dinner preparation, and amusing and robust family group chats about whose dog had the worst manners. One son called Don to discuss a malfunctioning smoke alarm. I casually scrolled through office emails to confirm that a crisis had not ignited in my absence. I felt an overwhelming sense of calm – along with a whiff of impatience to get back to my employment schedule. At bedtime, I leaned back into the comforting security of my bed pillows and reflected on my day. I was enlightened to discover that I could balance accomplishment with leisure.
Perhaps 2021 will be a time-off break-out year. Practice might not make me perfect, but it will be fun trying.