Draft 1: Vacation Packing

A week out of town with my husband is unusual. As a contract employee, he doesn't get vacation days. But his office is moving and everyone has to work remotely. We decided we'd make it from the Berkshires.

I brought my iPhone, a Kindle Fire, and a laptop. I packed my morning pages composition notebook, my planning notebook, the book where I note each day what I got accomplished or am grateful for, and my writer's journal.

I packed my knitting needles and two skeins of different yarn. I also brought three packages of different-sized acrylic flower beads, seed beads, and some jewelry-making tools along with a chain so I could prototype a bracelet. I brought six cans of Coke, a package of melon-grapefruit La Croix essence-flavored water, a package of fiber bars (9 grams of fiber per bar) and one of Kind nut-and-spice bars, and my sneakers.

I have my antidepressant pills, some sinus-headache tablets, and those little 81-milligram aspirins that probably help stave off strokes and heart attacks for women as well as men--unless researchers have changed their minds about it and I haven't caught the news.

I brought a nice top and slacks for one dinner out, but oddly, I brought mostly tops I don't like and will probably throw away rather than pack home.

And about all I've done here is sleep and look at social media sites.

It's a struggle to care and not care. To want to get things done and want to do nothing.

Vacationing is really hard for me.

Next:
a) A background of not vacationing because I was poor--my family did not go on vacations.
b) Americans suck at taking vacations compared with the rest of the world.
c) And people have different ideas of what a vacation should be like.