My girlfriend K. is nearly home (Saturday) from a two-week trip to India. We're not likely taking a big trip this year together, so I've got all this vacation time to use. Since she's away having a blast and experiencing new things, and life is just "same old, same old" for me, I thought, why not take advantage of this time by myself? Why not take 5 days off work and just be here? Here in my apartment, here in my city (Waterloo), here in my province (Ontario), etc. So I did! Today is the fifth day of my staycation, I'm returning to work tomorrow, and I have enjoyed this time off to the max!
Here's what I've gotten up to:
- Many sleep-ins (on my first day off, I slept in until 10:30!!!)
- Much leisure time spent on my computer -- catching up on my personal email inbox, doing some of my volunteer board work, buffering, and I even "went on a retreat" and spent two hours refocusing my professional blog (analyzing traffic, what works, what doesn't, etc.)
- Hanging out with friends and family!
- Eating -- pizza, Thai, panzerotti, Pakistani, sushi, burrito, sub, and more!
- Tasks around the apartment -- laundry, cleaning, organizing, and even little projects like I painted a chalkboard wall in the apartment and another project that I'll reveal later (I want to surprise Kate!)
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| New chalkboard wall in my apartment! |
- Celebrated my friend W's birthday!!! -- first visit to Lahore Tikka House, trampolining at Skyzone, and more time spent with W. & friends
- Gym -- I've had four solid gym visits over the course of the staycation, including an awesome Sunday morning Body Pump class with my sister
- Arts & culture -- I saw Die Walküre at the Canadian Opera Company by myself on Sunday. It was nearly five hours of intense performance and gorgeous singing. I'm a regular opera goer, but still a rookie, so I was a bit apprehensive about a 5-hour opera. I shouldn't have been. I was totally enchanted! I also saw a movie, Birdman, yesterday at Princess Cinemas in Waterloo. I had wanted to see it anyway, but once it won the Oscar, I knew I had to. It was captivating! What a unique film; the way it was filmed, the acting, the meta-ness, the sort of heightened reality... something totally new. I loved it!
- Car wash -- bumper to bumper. This was so incredibly satisfying! My car looks brand new!
- Cooking -- I went for a big grocery shop on Monday night and then yesterday made a dish that yields ten servings!!! I even went out and bought new lunch containers, and then I divided the dish (lentil chili) into its servings and currently have eight (!!!) servings in the freezer ready for next week's lunches (meaning when K's home, I can devote time to being with her rather than cooking for the week ahead!). I also bought the ingredients for a second meal which I'll hopefully cook today!
That's mostly it! Sleep, leisure time, seeing friends, eating, cooking, working out, doing tasks, taking in performances... It sounds simple, but rejuvenated may not be strong enough a word.
If you get the chance, do it! Now... back to my final 21 hours of staycation!
