So here's the deal with vacation time. When you have a "regular" job, you get vacation time and if you have any brains at all, you take it. Yeah, there are those fools out there who think they're going to heaven if they don't take vacation; we're not talking about them.
I'm a great believer in time off. It clears your head, gives you a well-needed break, relaxes you, and is just plain healthy.
OK, but now I'm self-employed at in in-house career. Sure I go on vacation to visit Miss P and family, and to venture forth with the Hubbo. No, I'm talking about taking time just for me. How do I do it? I have this little voice at the back of my head that says: thou shalt dye and thou shalt advertise and thou shalt ship, yada, yada, yada. But I'm tired and really need a break. So, I have to figure out how to do this.
Here's my solution: Sometime in the next 4-5 weeks, I'm going to take a week off. No dyeing, unless it's for me (and that's another topic), yup, I'll check on Etsy, of course, but I need to play. I need to wander through the Short Hills Mall all by myself and look at all the stuff I don't need and won't buy. Maybe I'll treat myself to some makeup. I need to sit down and read in the afternoon and not fall asleep over my book at bedtime. I need to knit for fun.
What do you think? Can I really pull this off?
Knitting News: I have a new obsession: modular knitting, or domino knitting or whatever you want to call it. Here's my silly scarf that I've been working on every second of free time I have (which is not much).
This is a case where the whole is so much better than the parts. I'm using Alexa yarn with a size 6 needle, and the scarf is so cuddly and has so much drape. I'm busy thinking of all the possibilities that I can do just using this simple module. How about mostly solid, with the point in a variegated yarn, or the opposite? How about doing it in solid yarns in different colors? Or doing it with some stockinette rows? Or in stripes? And easy knitting doesn't get any better than this. Talk about autopilot. I just love doing it. Hey, when I take my vacation (yes!), I could start another scarf.
We finally saw Sweeney Todd last night. I saw it on Broadway with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou and it was one of the best shows I've seen. He was so malevolent, and she played Mrs. Lovett as a really crazy, dotty character. The movie seems a pale imitation of the play. For one thing, where was the song "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"; they left it out. I liked the movie well enough, but the play was 100 times better.
I've also been watching reruns of Boston Legal. Somehow we missed the entire series. So now it's in reruns, and I'm just loving it. I walk around saying "Denny Crane".
Yarns and Odds: This week I'm presenting Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and maybe also Little Red Riding Hood, if I have time to dye her up. And that will probably be it for The Fairy Tale Collection. You know what comes next! Romance and love, at least for the first couple of weeks of February (and maybe the last week of Jan also). What to dye for the last 2 weeks? Maybe a fairy tale or two that I didn't do in Jan, or maybe something else. See what I mean about taking vacation when you're self-employed and love dyeing? It ain't easy, boys and girls.
Skepweaver - I put the Cariou/Lansbury production in my queue. This is the one that I want the Hubbo to see! Denny Crane.
KV - You've figured it out! I'm impressed, but then you've been doing this for a long time and I'm a newbie. The trouble is that I have all these ideas in my head for dyeing and for projects. I can't keep up with it all. Tomorrow I'm taking off to go to the gym and watch the inaugural proceedings. But that doesn't count as a vacation day. The scarf looks so much better in real life.
Sonia - I thought I'd take today off to watch the inauguration festivities, but I have to prep yarn and list it, etc, etc. I figure that by the time I get this vacation thing, I'll be retired from retirement!
4 comments:
Ruth --
There is a video version of the Lansbury/Cariou Sweeney Toddy, available through Netflix if nowhere else. Agreed: the Johnny Depp version is pale, pale, and why would they leave out some of the best stuff? Lansbury was wildly insane, wasn't she?
SusanLayne
Oh, and also, too (as Sarah Palin would say), Denny Crane: Gobble them up! Aside from the nuts relationships, some of those summations are an art form. It's good. Isn't syndication great?
S.
yes, i know from the self-employed vacation dilemmas. i'm up to seven weeks a year, and going for eight--took a lot of time. and i saw that production of sweeney todd, too. it was great! scarf looks wonderful.
I'm self-employed as well, and am still trying to figure out this whole taking a vacation thing. Good luck!
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