Staycationing

I’m on vacation this week—a little breathing room between old job and new—and it feels fantastic. Linus is napping, and I’m letting Linnea have at a roll of masking tape so I can sneak in a bit of typing here. Dangerous, I know. In lieu of planning anything major this week, we’re making our own frugal family fun. Yesterday, we went to a nice little beach at a suburban lake. Being a Monday, the place wasn’t mobbed, and we scored a sandy patch under a large shade umbrella. Linus and Linnea had a ball playing with (and to an unfortunate degree, eating) the sand.

My vacation didn’t exactly start on such a sunshine-y note. Friday was my last day at the job I’ve held since early 2008. After a lovely farewell happy hour on Thursday, and lunch with coworkers and a solid day of wrapping up loose ends on Friday, I was feeling pretty good until I realized (at 4 p.m.) that my cell phone was missing. A dozen or so coworkers combed my cubicle, the office kitchen, and even the bathroom. It was nowhere to be found, and I actually had to walk out the door without it. I was in a particularly sour mood until a Dairy Queen Blizzard intervened.

Sometime on Saturday I had a crazy idea. While working, I often had a three-ring binder full of sample products sitting open on my desk. Since the papers wouldn’t stay flat, it wasn’t unusual for me to use a mug or another object (maybe a phone?) as a paperweight. I started calculating the likelihood of a scenario in which I had closed the phone in the binder and placed it on the bookshelf without it falling out. Josh’s iphone was employed for some highly scientific experimentation, and I determined that it was, indeed, possible.

I managed to survive the weekend without a phone. In fact, I didn’t miss it all that much, except that my car has been on the fritz, and it surely would have sucked to break down on the side of the road with no phone. I envisioned walking along I-35 with two kids in tow, but thankfully, I zipped down to my hometown and back without any trouble. My mom and I held one stellar garage sale, and she gets extra credit for the most beautiful signs ever. Who else would attach faux flowers and prairie grass shoots to carefully-lettered cardboard signs?

Back to the phone. I emailed my friend and now-former boss to ask her to check the three-ring binder on Monday morning, and sure enough—there it was! And now that I’ve solved that mystery, I’ve reached that dreamy vacation mindset in which it’s hard to imagine life being any other way. I contemplated putting all household chores on hold this week but decided that would totally cancel out the restorative effects by next Monday. So I’m doing a little laundry, and I guess I’ll vacuum a few times. Staycationing would be so much cooler with a cleaning staff.

*****

I Want to Know

What do you like to do while on vacation at home?
Where’s the craziest place you ever found something that you’d lost?

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