Sept 25: Staying Flexible

I wish I was still on my staycation. I'm not, as this nutty week seemed determined to keep reminding me. But I do have the luxury of those lovely post-vacation memories - thinking back on doing this or going there during a relatively stress-free break at the beach. It was a delightful time off. If you happen to be lucky enough to live in the Fort Lauderdale area, you're an excellent candidate to consider a nice staycation this year. I highly recommend it. It's easy and it's inexpensive and it's really fun. But there's another advantage to staycations that hadn't quite sunk into my head until I got thinking about all this during the past several days. I realized that these close-to-home vacations offer the chance to savor a break without making the commitments that a break usually requires. Because a staycation probably is as noncommittal as any holiday can be.

I mean that in a good way, obviously. Think about it. A vacation is a commitment you make to yourself and your partner or family or whoever you're planning to travel with. You've set in cement a day to go away and a day to come home, bought your airline tickets and probably reserved a hotel and rental car. That's a commitment, a wonderful guarantee that you will definitely create time in your life for a getaway.

But sometimes life makes such commitments difficult for one reason or another. Maybe you're swamped at work. Maybe money is tight. Maybe your new partner doesn't like flying. That's when the non-commitment commitment of a staycation becomes a terrific solution. If you're living in South Florida anyway. So you pack your bags and head off to a nearby hotel, which you can book at the last minute if you like. You don't worry about checking and re-checking your packing because, hey, you can always bop home to pick up that pair of cutoffs you forgot. And if you really need to put in some work time, you can. On recent staycations, I've allowed a couple of days to return to my home office so I could do some writing and answer my emails. Then I'm back to the beach. It's a great system and, quite honestly, working seems totally painless because I know I'll soon be sipping a mojito near the sea. Returning to my normal work routine is less exhausting after a staycation too because I didn't let everything slide for a week. No one ever has called me any kind of commitment-phobe, as far as I know. I guess two marriages prove some willingness to commit, huh? All the same, I've found that non-commitment has its place - at least when that place is on the Fort Lauderdale beach.