Might need to pull back on the “stay” portion of these vacations

Instead of hitting on those items, I focused on rest and relaxation – almost to an extreme. In fact, early in my vacation there were some days that I didn’t roll out of bed until after 12 o’clock noon. Talk about a waste of a day!

One of the most disappointing parts of my vacation, though, was that I didn’t reach the point of renewal and energy growth that I reached several years ago when I took a similarly long hiatus from the office. During that prior vacation, I distinctly remember some time around the 13th or 14th day that I was out of the office I began to truly feel relaxed. I was on a great sleeping schedule, I was active during the day, I was active during the night, and things were going so well that I actually felt relaxed enough to have my metaphorical batteries feel recharged. When that vacation ended, I remember going back into the office like a ball of fire. Even the commute didn’t bother me after that vacation! Okay, well the commute not bothering me was short-lived for sure, but I was still charged up and ready to go after that staycation.

In addition to using my vacation to take care of many of the long-term items on my To Do List, I believe that one of the reasons why I was not able to achieve that zen-like relaxation was because I – again – opted for a staycation versus a true vacation. So in the future, I’m going to actually consider going on a real vacation when I take time off from the office. In fact, if you don’t count the different places that I travel to for work or the fraternity, then the last time I was truly on vacation was a trip to Orlando with my family when I was in sixth grade. And if I’m not mistaken, that would have been during the 1992 – 1993 academic year.

Scary, right?

For years now, my older brother has been asking me to consider going on a cruise with the entire family. That might be an option to consider in the coming year. Also, I’ve wanted to visit the true northeast of the United States since I was young – to check out Vermont and New Hampshire during the fall months and see the rolling forests change color. That might be fun for a weekend trip. And I have to admit – I did have a good time when I visited both New Orleans and San Antonio for fraternity events. They would both be great places to visit during a regular vacation where I’m just getting away to get away.

Anyway, that’s what I learned after spending 17 days out of the office during the Christmas and New Year’s Eve season.

And here’s a nice, relaxing video of the waves crashing onto the beach while I was relaxing in Asbury Park.

Nothing like a nice, relaxing day on the beach. It was great.

Not bad, huh? I managed to mount my television on the wall in about 30 minutes (might have been more like 40 minutes, but I wasn’t keeping track). Anyway, I was pretty impressed with myself for managed to actually make this work! In truth, I should have mounted the television earlier in my stay at my current apartment, but who knew that I would wind up staying in this place for four years (at least four years – which takes me through my current lease)? No worries, though. Now that I know this wall mount thing is so easy to install, I’ll be putting this thing up in my new place as soon as I move in (whenever that may be – who knows?).

So that’s one item on the “to do” list down and about 30 or so items left to go. That might sound like a lot of stuff to do, but it’ll be a big relief once all of these random things are finally done and completed. Is there a better feeling than getting a bunch of random “to do” items off of your back while still being able to relax and enjoy yourself for some 11 days away from the office? I don’t think so!

• Quality Time at the CSA Farm: In the next day or two, I’ll be posting some pictures of our recent takes from the local CSA farm. Spending time at the CSA farm is fun and a great way to be out there in a beautiful, rural area of New Jersey.
• Asbury Park Boardwalk: One of my goals during this vacation from work was to spend some time laying on the beach. Well, I didn’t quite get to lay on the beach due to a rushed schedule, but I did get a chance to walk up and down the Asbury Park boardwalk, which was a lot of fun. Hopefully, we’ll have another warm day before the leaves change and I’ll be able to get to the beach for a final time this season.
• Personal Planning: I’ve always wanted to take a week off from work to spend that free time focusing on me and what I’d like to do with the next X months/years of my life. I managed to squeeze in some time to consider those thoughts on Tuesday of last week, but I didn’t want to rush the situation, so I let it go for the time being. My next full week off from work is after Christmas, so that might be a good time. What I did come to a personal conclusion about, though, is how I need to start working out again with the same vigor that I had back in 2004 and 2005 (when I dropped 125 pounds before gaining 100 back). More on that one of these days.
• Went to a Baseball Game: Going to a baseball game was high on my list of “do this before the summer ends” activities. This past Thursday night I went up to a Newark Bears game and had a really good time. So check that off the list!
• Begin Teaching: Another reason why I wanted to take this time off was because it was the first week of school at the local college where I teach a political science class. This semester is the first time that I’m teaching at 8:30am instead of 7:25pm (big difference, huh?) so I wanted to give myself some time to get used to the campus atmosphere at that time of the day. Plus, I wanted to spend some extra time preparing my classes and reviewing my previously prepared presentations. I also began teaching three online courses at the local online university, too.
• Say Thank You and Fundraise: Another reason why I opted to take this particular week off was because the Chief Operations Officer of the foundation where I serve as a Board Trustee and the Board Treasurer was in town this week. I was happy to host him in my home and travel with him around New Jersey on Wednesday through Saturday to say thank you to some of our donors from New Jersey. In addition to saying thank you, we were also able to host some meetings to educate some of our foundation’s volunteers and raise some additional funds around some of our initiatives. By my quick count, we raised about $22,000 in commitments and first-year pledges. Not too bad for three and a half days, huh? Plus, one can never be sure about any additional funds that may come in due to folks simply being excited about hearing “thank you” regarding their previous donations.
• Worked with Local Chapter: I’ve noted numerous times on this blog how I work with the local chapter of my fraternity. In short, I act as a mentor to some of the undergraduate leaders and provide them with insight on how to operate their chapter in an efficient manner. Anyway, this was their first week back at school so I had dinner with some of their leaders, attended one of their meetings, and met with the entire chapter for lunch on campus. What’s even better is that I met with a young alumnus of the chapter that wants to do this job in my place – so I’m providing him with some training so that one day he could take over and act as the local chapter’s advisor. Great stuff.

Unfortunately, though, I was not able to accomplish all of the things that I planned on accomplishing during this staycation. For example, I wanted to renovate the syllabus for the class that I designed and taught for the first time last spring; just didn’t have the time to do that in the past week. Also, I wanted to finish up at least three of the books that I’m in the middle of reading at the moment – didn’t even pick up any of the books that I’m reading (too busy running around the state). With respect to JerseySmarts.com, I have some material that was sent in from some young writers and musicians that I wanted to review during the last week, but I’m going to have to push that off for another 10 – 14 days. And as for Usable Web Solutions, LLC, there were two major projects that I wanted to complete during the last week and I didn’t have a chance to start on either one of them.

But all of that is okay – I’m ready to get back to work and focus on hitting a couple of home runs in the office before the end of my company’s fiscal year on September 30, 2010! As for the rest of today, though, I’m heading over to a former roommate’s house to watch some football!

You know, when I take time off from work I have to use my vacation days. Yet, most of the times when I use those days I’m actually not “vacating” anything. In fact, most of the time I’m doing some type of volunteer work for the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation.

So…

Now that I actually have a few days off, I’m thinking about heading to the beach. Believe it or not, for the last ten years I’ve lived a few minutes from the Atlantic Ocean on the beautiful Jersey Shore and yet I’ve probably been to the beach less than ten times in these ten years. It’s bizarre, really. In addition to the beach, I plan on going to the movies and seeing whatever’s big right now (maybe Toy Story 3 is still playing? What’s good?) and probably sitting out in the backyard of the townhouse and doing a little sunbathing.

Should be fun!

Usable Web Solutions, LLC. In terms of what I accomplished over the break, I would have to say that the most progress was made on updating and upgrading certain aspects of my website company. Of these upgrades the most important include revising portions of my standard client contract for services and integrating a few important dates into my local copy of Outlook’s calendar system. Now I’ll be warned a few weeks ahead of time of contracts that are ready to expire and I’ll be able to offer my clients a new contract using the upgraded copy that I completed over the break.

I was also able to complete at least one new website over the staycation, but I cannot announce that website yet since it is not yet “live” on the servers. Maybe more important than completing that website, though, was the time that I spent pouring over the records of my website company to single out those deadbeat clients and marking those business relationships for termination in 2010. As a small business owner, I understand that I am going to run into some people who are just not good at creating lasting business relationships. I get it – it’s part of the game. However, I purposely keep my small business small because I have a day job as well as two other jobs (teaching) and I don’t need the aggravation of deadbeat customers. By the end of 2010, I should be rid of these deadbeat customers once and for all (in fact, I’ve already severed my relationship with one of those companies earmarked for removal).

Teaching/Learning. Since I am teaching two courses in the spring, there are a number of materials that I needed to prepare to be ready for the new semester. These two courses are new to me and one of them is new to the college where I am teaching it. I teach at two colleges – one is an all-online college and the other is a bricks and mortar institution. I accomplished the feat (and it was a feat, believe me) of learning the online teaching system for the all-online college. Through learning this system, I prepared myself for teaching the all-online class which actually begins today.

However, for the new course that I designed and created, I accomplished very little. That’s okay, though, since I have another three weeks before the course even begins. In the next three weeks, I’ll get all of the necessary course material prepare for this class so I have no worries about being ready to go in the spring semester.

And finally, I wanted to pick up the textbooks necessary for the course that I am taking at the local college, but the syllabus has not been released yet and thus I didn’t know what to buy! Nothing I can do about that one, I guess!

Relaxation. The most important thing that one needs to accomplish during a staycation is reaching a level of relaxation that makes the break worth the paid time off. I think that I accomplished that level of relaxation, though I have to admit that I’m not sure. Last year during this Christmas holidays I took off the same amount of time from the office as I did this year. Yet last year I distinctly remember feeling relaxed and completely refreshed by Thursday/Friday of the staycation. This year, I don’t know if I achieved that feeling of relaxation, though I do know that by Thursday/Friday of the break I was getting slightly stir crazy from being in my apartment so much!

All in all, I’m glad to be back in the office today just so I have something different to do with my time. However, I wouldn’t mind taking a few more days off so I can kick back and relax without having to worry about preparing for teaching two classes or dealing with deadbeat website clients. Maybe I’ll take some time to do that this summer…

I’m on vacation from work this week (actually, my vacation started after work this past Tuesday night, but who’s keeping track anyway?). I don’t have to be back in the office until next Monday, January 4th, 2010. Including today, that leaves me with seven more days of vacation before going back to the office and I plan on doing as little as possible during the next seven days!

Last year during this same time frame I went on a “staycation” and it was the only time during the entire year that I actually relaxed and unwound from the office. While I have some preparatory work to do for the new class that I created and am now teaching at the local college this spring, I hope to achieve the same level of rest and relaxation that I achieved last year at this time. Between teaching the new class at the local college, accepting an online teaching position at a statewide online college, running my website company, serving as a Trustee on the national board of my fraternity’s foundation, and my day job – I’ve got a big spring season ahead of me. When factoring that I might have to pickup and move to a new place at the end of my current lease, everything becomes all the more complicated.

But hey, if you’re not busy, then you’re not living – right?

I have a bunch of backlogged entries to upload to the blog (last I counted there were some 20 entries waiting to be uploaded). So be sure that you stick around this week and see what’s going on at JerseySmarts.com!

My plan for this staycation is to relax and accomplish some of the nagging errands and items that are on my “to do” list. For example, today I’ll go to the university where I’m an Adjunct Professor and sign-up for the free membership to the brand new gymnasium (built in the last few months). Sure, I already have a membership at my local gym, but it would be nice to have the option to workout on campus after I teach my class twice a week. Also, I’ll take care of the rent payments and some minor banking that I need to do during the course of today.

I also have some prescriptions to drop off at Wegmans and some phone calls to make for the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation (of which I am a member of the Board of Trustees). Then I plan on doing some work for Usable Web Solutions, LLC (which includes preparing future entries for this blog) as well as getting over to the gym to do some working out and reading on the treadmill before dinner. At some point I want to clean out my DVR today, too. Oh, and I brought just a little bit of work home with me from the office – to fill any gaps that I might have during the day.

I said this would be a relaxing vacation, right?

It’s worth mentioning, though, that I put together a large “to do” list for myself during this vacation. That’s right – I have tasks to complete during my time away from the office. I’m not going away on a vacation, I’m doing one of these newly popular “staycation” things where I stay around my house for a week. I’m doing this partly out of necessity (while I’m on vacation from my day job, I still have to teach twice this week) and partly due to the tremendous cost savings associated with not going away. Initially, I wanted to take a few days and go down to Nashville. Then I realized that I would go down to Nashville and spend a bunch of money on a flight only to get down there and wind up doing more work for the national Board that I sit on. I figured that I can do that from home so why spend the money on the flight?

To keep busy over the next few days, I’ve given myself four small pages of notes on things that need to be addressed. Everything from figuring out the problem with my truck to reading a stack of the books that are sitting in my room to making certain foods that I like to getting ready for next week’s classes that I have to teach.

It’ll be a busy, yet somehow relaxing week!