Sheer relief overcame me on Friday at 4:15. That was the official start of spring break. Of course, we teachers aren’t supposed to leave until 4:30–looks bad if most of us beat the students out of the building! So the fact that I was there until 4:45, marking projects and entering grades wasn’t me trying to win anything like teacher of the year. I just didn’t want to return from vacation with projects to mark.
This will be the first spring break in my 15 year career that I actually stayed home. By some miracle, I do have the money to travel somewhere, but I chose not to add to my stress by planning a weeklong relaxing vacation! None of the airport hassles or searching for the cheapest deals for me. I decided, with the start of my second novel, The Adventures of Infinityand Negativa, that I would save money for a two-week visit to Utila, Honduras, a laid-back Caribbean island, where I vacationed before when I used to teach in Tegucigalpa.
In the meantime, I’m vacationing by living the life of an artist. In addition to my daily habit of writing every day, I’m going to paint, dance more, read more, drop off more press kits to set up future readings, and of course, get some of those chores done that I’ve just not taken the time during a “normal” week to get done such as drop off stuff at Goodwill and go to Walmart to order more contacts. Granted, those last two things are not too glamorous, but what a relief it’ll be to have them done by this time next week.