June 2002

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what that means. Last year I travelled across the country but that wasn't much of a vacation; I was heading out to work, and I had all sorts of things on my mind as I was driving, such as "what will it be like when I get there?" "Will I fit in?" "Will I be able to find a hotel room at 9 at night in Calgary?"

Such questions have a way of distracting one from the joy of travelling. I was so concerned about making my schedule that I didn't enjoy the mountains as much as I perhaps should or could have. And now, on a Sunday evening, I find myself facing a week's vacation. Not a week of hard driving. There will be some driving, sure, but that's at my leisure and completely of my own volition. Primarily, I'm just going to have a time away.

This is a fascinating, if odd concept. I'm a do-do-do type person. I quite like to be doing, and it drives me mad to not be doing. This is one of my more notable character flaws. Even if the doing is just listening to music as I read, I need to be busy. For instance, as I write, I'm listening to Michael Knott sing "Blame", chatting on MSN, and checking my email. Not that that matters so much. I could be dancing the Watusi for all you know. All you ever see is the formatted text on that lovely grey background.

But where was I... Oh yes. I like being busy. I wonder what effects not being busy will have on me. I can only hope that they will be good effects. Perhaps I will even have a chance to kickstart a couple projects that have been simmering on the backburner for a while.

And if that isn't mixed metaphor, I don't know what is. So stick that under your hat and smoke it, as my Grandma is once reputed to have said. Grab the bull by the tail and look it square in the eyes, as it were.

Or whatever else mixed metaphor you may wish to inflict on the unsuspecting.

Maybe I'm about to have a mixedly metaphorical vacation. Although not fully metaphorical, there should be some actuality to it. But who knows? Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll be thoroughly unprepared. I'll be there with bells on and banners flying. Or whatever.

Till next month, when I'll be even stranger than I am right now... keep your stick on the ice, and your ice in the freezer.