Published Dec 18, 2005
One thing about vacation: it’s tempting to follow the path of sheer sloth, but life generally expects some fairly high level of activity to complete socially-accepted activities. The other half of that is that, once one indulges that temptation towards torpor, there’s an intertia that virtually demands continuing — if not growing — levels of dormancy. As Newton says, objects at rest stay at rest.
At least that’s the way it is with me. If I decide to mostly spend the day at home and relax, then the slightest actual task — dropping off film to get developed, picking up the dry cleaning, going to the store — looms as a tremendous imposition, an intimidating departure from the comfort of my couch, my little house, my complete quiescence. So, on some days, I get up in the morning, the Daily Show draws me in, Tivo feeds me more Law & Order or CSI or Alton Brown or Boondocks or My Name Is Earl, the Internet provides blog after blog, and the next thing I know it’s 1 and I’m still in my pjs and slippers and robe. Compared to this sybaritic indulgence, the task of putting on jeans, getting myself to Baja Fresh, and planning just what I might have for lunch seems quite onerous, if not outright intimidating. Do I shudder in fear of disrupting my disactivity? Absolutely. The smaller the task being done, the larger the imposition of doing something else; add in a high degree of comfort in staying home, closing the shades, and sitting around alone, all day long, and day after day, and I’d often rather not leave the apartment. And those tasks hanging over my head, walking down the street to Best Buy or the like? They hang over my head all day long, a Sword of Damocles threatening to chop a hole in my virtual hibernation, and I plan my utter passivity around these few small tasks, putting said tasks off with a series of quick oh-let’s-just-look-at-a-blog-or-two-for-a-second, hey-this-computer-game-will-only-take-15-minutes, unsatisfying time-wasters, which eat up, in total a good fourteen and a half hours that I’ll never get back. But at least I’m doing nothing at all.
Then there’s the last few days, with errand after errand required to get my stuff together for two weeks of vacation, plus do all of the things I put off during finals week. If I’ve already gone to Trader Jim’s Camera, Target, Whole Foods, and Staples, it’s no biggie to go to Adventure 16 and Smart & Final and Rite Aid in the same day, it’s just one quick trip and a walk across the street. In fact, if I think about sitting down and watching TV or — God forbid — having lunch, all I can think about is the long list of errands and needed widgets, I get those butterflies in my stomach, my legs itch to move, and it’s out the door I go again on some expedition. Objects in motion, I guess, stay in motion.
I’d like to find an in-between, to get going every morning, knock off 3-4 tasks, then chill out after lunch, but either I get hyped to do more or I never get out at all. It’s never happy relaxation, it’s either indolence or mania. That damn Newton, he’s got my number.
Yeah, that’s why I haven’t posted to my blog in weeks. I didn’t want to wreck your productivity.
good entry.