An Update about my Escape to the Glorious Florida Peninsula

I have now entered the third week of my Florida Working Vacation.  I arrived here on Tuesday, February 28^th, 2012 and am leaving here on Tuesday, March 20^th, 2012.  It is weird and incredible at the same time.  But mostly incredible.  This is the longest I have ever been anywhere nice unless you count my semester studying abroad in Bath, England.  Vacations are always gone in the REM blink of an eye.  Just a taste of paradise and nothing more.

Over the years I have not been able to take many vacations.  The ones that I did take were only a week long and often ruined by work-related responsibilities.  It is not fair, but the adult world often shows little mercy.  This is just the way things are and the consequences for “taking a break” can be absolutely devastating.  Yes.  I know there are plenty of others who have far worse realities, but this is not the point.

Therefore, my only solution was to loaf down here for three solid weeks and bring my work with me.  It is quite an experience and I would like to believe the time is being utilized consistently.  Every single day something important is completed in an environment where spring is as it should be.  The flowers are actually in bloom in seventy-plus degree weather and rain is consistent, but not relentless.  It never lasts very long and the sun soon comes out to gloss over any remnants of nature’s fury.

                                                                       

This is unlike any vacation in a hair under thirty years of life.  Paradise is prolonged without the constant pressure to seize every second of a given day.  Rush, rush, rush, and need to take another vacation to make up for the one you just “enjoyed.”  If one or two days are squandered in laziness then it is not the end of the world because there are multiple opportunities to overcompensate later on in the week.  Right now, I am helping my publicist, Daphne Plump create the new web page, by giving her this blog as well as all the past ones.  Much of my time is spent helping her initiate the publicity campaign, which should give me a fresh start.  Perhaps this is why I am here.  To give myself a fresh start while shaving three weeks off winter.

My time in the Land of Florida has also been spent trying to lose weight.  I am now inching my way down to the 190 pound mark and hope to reach the 180 region by the time I leave.  The consequences of sitting on my butt answering too many e-mails have finally taken their toll.  Ringing Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus actually called last week to ask whether they could pay me $50.00 per day to serve as their “World’s Fattest Man.”  Alright!  Maybe this did not actually happen, but if I keep it up then this could very well be my future.

Most important, I have a great deal of time to spend with my grandmother who is 83 years young.  I serve as her chauffeur during nighttime driving and try to take breaks from the computer once in a while to join her watching television.  Tonight we just saw the movie, “My Week with Marilyn.”  For three weeks, I have shed my self-martyr complex and am trying to just enjoy my time in the Veritable Garden of Eden.  And these three weeks are actually going very fast!

At least once in a person’s life, it is important to make compromises and do something for yourself.  This is finally my time.  I am going to take my working vacation and return stronger than before.  I know everyone will be waiting with big smiles on your faces in just a week’s time!