Vacation

I'm on vacation right now. However, I am not jetting to Cancun to bask in the sun or boarding some other large mechanized contraption destined to deliver me to some other exotic place. I am not even going to the Cape. And the people at my work think I am insane because they always travel during vacations. Coming from tourist areas, and living in one, I've never seen the point. I have traveled - I've been to the South Pacific, Hawaii, Canada, all the way up the west coast of the US from L.A. to Seattle and across the continent by car and bus - and I must say that one of the things I learned during all that is that visiting places for a very short time leaves me feeling empty and alone. Every city becomes identical and devoid of meaning, because how much experience and meaning can be jammed into a two hour stop over or even a two week stay? Especially since what makes a place is the people. Give me a month, or two or three, and I will visit. I will hurry out and then sit around, soaking it up so that I can take away what it is like to almost be a resident of the place. Until then, I'm at home.

And I am having a jolly old time. I'm writing. I guess you could say I am sampling the writer's lifestyle. I am setting my own clock. I got up a hour early today, and I can stay up as long the drive to create makes me. I don't have to tuck it in bed so that I'm not a zombie tomorrow. I am mailing off submissions, squeezing my own juice (I mean this literally), drinking too much coffee and following my instincts. There are moments of panic and anxiety, but they pass. It really helps that I am not financially dependant on my output just now. Hopefully this vacation will help me form some good writing habits and get a jump on my writing so that I'll have a rough draft this time next year.

A rough draft of what? you ask. Why, of the knitting story, of course. Did you think I totally dropped that?