Aug 24: Affordable Sanity

I needed my drive along A1A this morning. It gave me a Monday morning lift. And it reminded me about the staycation I have planned for the middle of next month on the Fort Lauderdale beach. The oceanside drive also reminded me why I badly need that break from work, even though money is tight for me just now. But I'm getting ahead of my story here. You see, I didn't sleep very solidly last night. I only got a couple hours of zzzzzz time, something that's relatively rare for me, thankfully. I won't bore you with most of the details, except to say my disrupted night involved money worries. I'm sure many of you know the feeling, especially these days.

I can tell you this much. This year is not a great period to be working most of your time for free, as I do for my nonprofit group. But that's my choice and I believe in what we're doing. Anyway, I laid awake much of the night thinking about this stuff, then dragged myself from bed and headed out along the ocean.

On my drive, I stopped at a doughnut shop in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea for a medium coffee, black, and a plain doughnut. As I sat outside the shop eating and sipping, I could feel the ocean breeze cooling my face and arms. I wished I could take the whole day off but I had lots to do. So I hopped back in my car, heading south toward home until I spotted a parking space on A1A. I pulled in and sat watching the Atlantic for 10 minutes or so. The sea was calm and beautiful and it helped calm me. I think that's when I started really fantasizing about the coming staycation. My girlfriend and I have booked a room in a nice hotel smack in the middle of the beach action in Fort Lauderdale. In three weeks, I'll be sipping a mojito by 4pm on days when I otherwise would be writing and phoning and emailing and probably worrying. One thing I've learned over the years is not to put off vacations or travels until I can afford them. Somehow I find a way to pay for these, even during tight times for me. Somehow I never regret spending the money. In the end, I guess, we're each responsible to ourselves and those around us for our own sanity, aren't we? So the way I look at it is this: I might not be able to really afford my September week away from work. But I really can't afford to cancel it either.