I had all week off last week, because my company has unlimited PTO and encourages you to take time off. So I took five days even though I had no place to “go” or particular plans. I could just step away and not think about work, because taking time off doesn’t count against a quota.
I clocked between 10k and 13k steps every day except Friday, when
it rained pretty much the whole day. I got a lot of household things done. I
got my flu shot. I went to Costco and mooched about because I didn’t have to
scoot back to work. (Supply chain alert: no unsalted butter—except for
Kerrygold—and I’m down to 12 pounds; this is a possible DefCon 2.) I played
with my new
camera and reveled in the fall colors. I had my yoga lesson in the morning,
which is a markedly different experience from my usual end-of-work-day session.
I stayed up past my bedtime reading, and I read during the middle of the day.
And I got takeout dinners every night, except for one night when I
had dinner with a friend, and one other night when I had kabobs left over from
an earlier night. New keeper: the Charcoal Kabob “in the K-mart shopping center”
(which it’s still called by the locals, even though the K-mart closed, like,
five years ago). Had a very interesting combination of Filipino and Moroccan
from another place. And not sure about L’Auberge Chez François; the meal was
fine, but I’d expected a bit more than “fine” from all the hype. I might try
again, just to confirm. (The other two nights were from old favorites, Café
Montmartre and Cooper’s Hawk.)
I am fully aware that being able to take paid time off from work
is a luxury that millions of my fellow Americans only dream about (it shouldn’t
be, but here we are), and I am profoundly grateful for that. I’m also grateful
that I can afford to patronize local restaurants, including extravagant tips.
There was a time when I couldn’t, so this is another real luxury. I feel so
energized and refreshed—which, I suppose is the whole purpose of “vacation”.
So, yay, PTO!
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