Not all vacations need to involve travel. In fact, I personally find that the most relaxing vacations involve a hammock and a few Coronas. This is known as a staycation. It’s a vacation where you stay at home and relax.
That is why I spent this past week at home, hanging out with my boys and mostly just relaxing.
Mostly, that is, except for my self appointed writing goals.
I ended up cranking out a paltry 6,000 words on the new book. It’s not a huge number, but easily met my low standards. During this week, I met with some small resistance in the form of Gabe really, really wanting to sit in my lap. Later in the week, Isaac finished school and made things difficult by constantly pestering me about using the iPad.
My brain does not handle distractions very well. Each one sets me back five minutes. I do not pretend to understand why. This just happens to be the truth.
I experimented with several solutions. Video games were, of course, the easiest. The side effect there was that it made me feel like a terrible parent. Books are a good option, too. On Library Day I produced about 2,000 words. I checked out twenty books that the boys finished in a little over a day. This was great, but not sustainable. Also, isn’t there some rule that kids should get some form of exercise sometimes? I guess I’ll have to look that up.
In the afternoons I was able to pawn the boys off on the roaming band of hooligans that wanders our neighborhood. It’s good social interaction and great exercise, so I feel pretty good about this option. I just have to have the occasional conversation with them about the proper ding dong ditch etiquette.
You need to make sure nobody sees you, guys. Seriously.
Yesterday, I attempted another solution. Instead of writing in the morning or in the afternoon I took the boys to Como Park and the comic book store. It was all sorts of fun, and the boys got to see some giraffes and lions. We got a ton of exercise walking around and I’d like to think we learned a few things.
The only down side was that I got absolutely no writing done all day. As far as working staycation days go, this was not good. I didn’t work, and I didn’t stay at home.
It was a pretty good vacation day, though.
I’d better get good at this. I have Fridays off all summer and I would like to get a significant amount of writing done. I’d also like to spend loads of time with my boys and play a lot of video games.
It’s going to be a busy summer.