Editor-in-Chic Blog – Taking a Thinkation

A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in. ~Robert Orben

I wrote my first out of office reply this week and it felt really, really, ridiculously good. Let me explain…

For the past two years, I’ve been working tirelessly to get Cincy Chic off the ground. Never leaving a stone unturned, brain always “on,” always coming up with new ideas (and after which execute), and never able to stop working. In this time, my personal life also went into overdrive and I got engaged, bought a house, undertook some major house renovations, and got a puppy. Needless to say, vacation hasn’t even been in my vocabulary lately.

But recently, my mind started to meander when I’d get an out of office reply to an e-mail I sent. I’d wonder where they were… South Beach, South of France, or perhaps the South Pole? I started to realize that I was living vicariously through people’s out of office e-mails… definitely not normal… so I thought maybe *gasp* I should go on vacation!

It might be because it’s in my blood to go on vacation around this time of year. Ever since I was a few years old, my parents have been coming to the same place in Myrtle Beach on the same week every year. So, we’ve made some really great friends down here since we see them every year and we always have a great time. In the time since my parent’s have had the timeshare, I’ve only missed two years. One was when I was a foreign exchange student in France in college and the other was last year because it was the week after we purchased our house and my fiance would have had a fit if I let him unpack everything while I lounged on the beach! 🙂

So, I knew my parents were going to be down in Myrtle in a few weeks, and they always ask me to go. I was wishy washy on whether or not I could tear myself away from work. But I’m happy to report that I’m writing this blog with an out of office reply activated, relaxing in a lounge chair, listening to the distant roar of the ocean, as the breeze softly tousles my hair. Check it out:

I should have opened the new office on the beach! 🙂

You know, I was worried about not being in the daily grind of work, but I’ve actually really benefited from taking myself out of it. By not being steeped in the day-to-day hustle of pumping out a weekly publication, I’ve been able to let my mind roam and it’s truly been a beautiful thing. I’ve come up with some great ideas, I remembered some loose ends I forgot to tie, and I’m creatively inspired again. I told my mom this has been a “thinkation” for me because of all the thinking I’ve been able to do. She smiled like she might have a fraction of an idea of what the heck I was talking about, even though I’m pretty sure she didn’t. But I miss letting my mind wonder like this, and I miss writing long blogs like this. I even got in some reading of my “Time Traveler’s Wife” book, which I also miss.

Although, I’m confident that I’ll fall back into my workoholic ways, I’m glad I took this time for me. Now, I wonder if anyone lived vicariously through my out of office e-mail! 🙂