The Type A Vacation

I’ve taken a good number of personality tests over the years and every one  of them has reached  the same conclusion about my personality.  Of course, each uses a different label.  I’m type A, I’m a driver, I’m an achiever.  What is true is that I measure the success of my day by how much I have accomplished.  I set goals.  I like crossing things off my to do list. Although I like people,  I’m more task oriented than people oriented.  This is what makes the notion that I’m taking a vacation a kind of a misnomer for the weeks away from my job.  

For the past 20 years, I have enjoyed having the month of July off.  What I call a vacation is really just a refocusing of the kinds of things I want to accomplish.  For fifteen of those years, my vacations focused on seeing the world.  I’ve traveled all over China, all over Europe, to Cuba, Costa Rica, all over Canada, Mexico, and four countries in Africa.  I still have Brazil and Japan on my list of places I still want to visit.  I’ve traveled to most U.S. states, with Vermont, Montana, the Dakotas, Kentucky, and Mississippi still on my list.  Every trip includes an itinerary filled with exploration and learning.  Sitting on an exotic beach sipping an umbrella drink sounds like torture to me.  I’d have to have a book and a writing pad to endure it.  I’m not into active adventure vacations either.  As my children discovered while in Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite,  I can’t be enticed to snorkel, kyat, rock or mountain climb or white water raft. Thankfully, their father loved that stuff.   I’ll find my way to the nearest museum, historical monument, local festival, or IMAX theater.  Anything involving the local fare is a “go” for me as I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to food.

But these days, foreign travel has lost its lure, mainly because I hate long flights.  I had to prepare myself mentally for that 7 hour flight to Maine a couple of weeks ago for my son’s wedding.  The mere thought of getting on an intercontinental flight right now makes me a bit sick to my stomach.  So, for the third year in a row, I’m staying close to home, meaning within the country.  I just need something to keep me busy.

I’ve been spending more than a little bit of time thinking about projects.  How will I spend my days?  I’ll read.  I’ll finish reading, “Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction” by Derek Thompson.  I purchased the newest John Grisham novel, “Camino Island” just for fun. We’ll spend a week near San Diego, at the Lawrence Welk Resort and enjoying the Valley View Casino where they have this delicious all you can eat lobster buffet dinner for like $33.   I’ll work out every morning.  I’ll study my Spanish.  And of course, I’ll garden and dole out the over-abundance of peppers, tomatoes, grapes, onions, peaches, and lettuce to friends and neighbors that we’ve already begun to harvest.  We also have strawberries, cucumbers, carrots, plums, apples, lemons, avocados, and radishes.  But they are not in such abundance that we can’t consume them ourselves.

We’ve talked about repainting the stamped concrete in the yard, but I think we could actually hurt ourselves.  We should probably hire someone to do it.  One year, I painted about 30 pots with all kinds of decorative designs, but I think I got the painting bug out of my system.  Another summer I took up knitting and knitted a bunch of infant hats for pre-mature babies through Helping Hands.  I’m not feeling the knitting bug either.  Last summer I made about 27 dresses for Little Dresses for Africa.  I’m not feeling that either.  Being the person, I am, I’m starting to feel a little panicky because I haven’t already decided what I’m going to accomplish this July. I don’t have a long home project  list this year, so I’m just waiting for inspiration to strike because lying on the beach or simply binge watching “House of Cards” on Netflex with a bowl of popcorn, doesn’t suit my type A personality.