Before you hit the highway, you better stop for gas*

How I make it feel more like vacation even when I can't leave town.

• I go stay in different house. Seriously. I enthusiastically volunteer to stay in the homes of friends and family when they go away. Right now, I am in a colleague's very large duplex in an old inner-city neighbourhood. I have stayed on acreages, in townhouses, apartments, log homes, cottages, modest family bungalows, 100 year old historic homes. A change of scenery, exploring a new neighbourhood, discovering a new coffee shop (or, in my present situation: re-visiting an old favourite coffee shop because this house is just blocks from my very first teeny-weeny apartment) these things have a vacation vibe even within the boundaries of my own city.
• I have figured out the things that "feel like vacation" to me, so that i can do them at home (or in someone else's home, if I so choose.)
• Letting soaking-wet hair dry in the sun.
• Sunscreen that smells like coconut.
• Reading for as long as I want, without checking the time.
• Lemonade in mason jars.
• Coming in after being in the sun, to a shower and lotion and soft dry cotton clothes.
•  Sitting outside in my pyjamas to eat breakfast.
• Bare feet in green grass.
• Steak, hot off the grill, on a plate next to a big baked potato with butter and sour cream and salt & pepper.

I've done all of these things, in the last few days. I have felt time stretch out, the way it only does when I have gotten rid of any sense of obligation. It feels oh-so-good. I'm starting to be able to think about the beginning of a new school year without panicking. I'm sort of looking forward to setting my my new office (yup, the promotion comes with an office. It's a glorified closet, really, with no windows, but still: an office. All mine.), freshening up the classroom. I'm thinking, in an idle way, about things to cook and bake to stock my freezer and help me survive the first crazy 6 weeks of kindergarten. 

My "noise fast" is supposed to end tomorrow, but I'm not so sure about that.... But that would probably make a great post, for tomorrow.

*My friend Carrie Underwood. Shut up, she is totally my friend.