Palm Trees Don’t Count
No other feeling in life compares to the last day of class, the feeling of accomplishing something worthwhile, the feeling of completion, and the feeling of not having to twist uncomfortably in my chair to make my stomach stop growling for three whole weeks!
After my final exam today, I was so excited to be free of school that I raced home and am currently rewarding myself with Shark Week reruns. (Don’t even get me started about the horrific, mesmorizing glory that is Shark Week.) In addition to turning on the t.v., I simulatenously flipped on the dishwasher and my laptop, put my cell phone on the coffee table to keep it within reach, and retrieved an IKEA catalog. And then after I sat down and tried to decide which drug I wanted to snort first, I thought, woa, kiddo…stimuli, much? That’s correct, I call myself kiddo when I’m being philosophical. How in the world does having every possible form of distraction equate to freedom? Now, I’m not going to spin off into a lecture about how sometimes we just need to turn off the freaking t.v. or how technology is destroying the beautiful necessity of alone time. I’m just saying that’s a lot of stuff happening at one time, and it was almost scary how mechanical it had become to create that space of sensory bombardment. Not to mention that, to me, having all this meaningless distraction signified a celebration. A celebration of what, exactly? Getting to drool over decorative home goods that I’ll never actually own? Obsessively checking my cell phone just in case it decided not to ring? Yeah, that doesn’t really scream party hats and streamers to me.
With this in mind I have to start planning a mini vacation for Clayton and I during our breaks from school. We will only have 4-5 days and both want to spend those days surrounded by trees, fresh air, and, ideally, humidity that remains in the single digits. The words Appalachian Trail have been tossed around, but the idea of four actual walls and a mattress seems more vacation-like to me. Any suggestions?