At first I thought it was because my boss has been out of town the whole time so the days just seem less demanding. Admittedly, I've been late to the office more often than usual during this time because, well, the boss is out of town. For some (obvious) reason that fact makes getting out of bed on time just a little bit harder. My lunches and breaks seem to run a smidge longer than they should, too. So I thought, OK, I'm making the most of the situation is all. There's no one looking over my shoulder, I'm still getting all my work done, nothing wrong with having a relaxing week while the boss is having a holiday. But then I would stroll back from lunch all set to start being productive after a not-very-on-the-ball morning and... nothing. There would be nothing to do! It's just been the slowest couple of weeks ever. Out of the entire summer, this must be the most popular fortnight for vacations. Everyone's gone so there's no work coming in. That's my theory, anyway.I have spent an incredible amount of time lollygagging, browsing the internets, checking out Facebook happenings, keeping up with the World Cup, jotting down notes & brainstorming projects I want to complete at home, writing a story I've been working on, reading various blogs, sending emails, catching up on celebrity gossip, looking at photos, playing with my ipod... you name it!
I have also spent several hours arguing with myself about whether or not I should go ahead and use some vacation time to get the heck out of this pit of boredom! Because really I'm not wasting office time so much as I am wasting MY time. I've got nothing important to do. I'm getting headaches staring at this monitor and racking my brain to figure out how to get those last two hours to crawl by just a little bit faster. It's summer! There are so many other things I could be doing right now: spending time with my son & husband, swimming, going to the park, jogging, writing, drawing, working on the house, summer cleaning, gardening, anything but sitting in front a computer in a gray cubicle!! Ugh. But then I talk myself out of leaving because, you know, you can't waste that vacation time. 'You'll want to go on a trip, you'll want to do something really good with it,' I tell myself. I'm not really 'wasting' my time because I'm earning money and earning paid time off. I should be happy about not having to work so hard to earn those things. I should enjoy wasting work time right now so I can use the PTO time for something spectacular later. But...
We're not actually taking a vacation this year. Next year we have plans to go to Europe so we're sort of saving money and time off to use for next year's big trip. It's a staycation kind of year anyway. Should I nickel and dime my time off by cutting out early on a few slow afternoons to go take care of some summer-y business, or save it all up for several days of camping or something? Which one would be more satisfying? Which one would make me feel like it really is summer and not just one long, continuous, exceptionally hot and humid work year? Weeks like these make me think maybe I should just be a stay at home mom, even though I'd probably have to be on welfare to do that. Of course, I was bored staying at home all the time, too, and I'm pretty fond of my paycheck. It's the eternal question: Should I stay or should I go?
Maybe I'll just take a long break and get a snack while I mull it over.
