...................................................................................................: vacations...

i've been on vacations before. lots of them in my 28 years. but i just realized that vacations are totally different now. ever since i decided to be a writer, that i wanted to spend hours and hours crafting and creating lives of fictitious characters (sounds kind of lame when i put it like that...but it's not i swear) down to every detail...vacations some how shifted.

now you're wondering, what could i possibly mean? and how could vacations have anything to do with writing? well, let me give you an example of a before and after using the trip i just got back from.

mason, my mother-in-law, and i went to palm beach (their favorite) for about six days. i was sold on the 82 degree weather. i had a deadline to meet while i was there. it was sort of self-imposed, but that's how i like it sometimes (otherwise, there's always a reason not to finish). anyway, it was a wonderful trip.

pre-writer vacation: all i thought about was getting a sun tan. i would go out as early as possible, lather myself with spf, and stay out all day. reading novels, listening to music, going on walks along the beach...all until it started getting cold. i would go in, shower, do a little dinner, and then fall asleep....all to do it again the next day.

this trip: i still wanted to get a little tan considering i really skipped that whole scene in the summer. i started to look see-through (and some people look really good without a tan...homegirl isn't one of them), but it was more about being strategic with my time. how can i get the best sun of the day and still have time to write before getting showered and ready for dinner? i was more concerned with my writing than relaxing. 'what's the point of a vacation if you're going to work the whole time' you say. it's simple. i feel more able to get my writing done without a house to clean, a dog to walk, laundry to fold, dishes to put away, errands to run. on vacation, i am getting a vacation from the parts of my life that take my attention for most of the day. oh, i did read a little YA fiction though (Eleanor & Park)

writers don't get vacations. they don't want them.