I took time off. Two whole days away from the constant ping of "You've Got Mail." Two whole days without dreaded phone calls of angry parents or panicked students. Sandwiched between my two whole days off - we celebrated an early Christmas, played with cousins, and I saw all my parents (real and step).
Today, I went back to work. I work for an amazing organization and they encourage us to have balance in our life. They encourage learning. They encourage us to be the best of our best self every day at work and at home. They expect us to do our jobs well, but they don't expect us to do three days of work in one day - so why do I?
I answered more than 50 emails today, graded at least fifteen tests (probably closer to twenty), went to two meetings, scanned and organized documents to send out, returned phone calls, and sent out notes for one of the meetings I attended.
Was there anything so urgent that one or two of those tasks couldn't have waited until tomorrow? No. But for some reason, I decided that I needed to do three days' work in one day.
This weekend was two intensive days of travel and one solid day of playing. The kids saw every single one of their cousins this weekend and who doesn't like time to play with cousins? Couple that with one-on-one time for our oldest with both Mom and Dad at the hotel pool and you're likely in heaven.
However, returning to work after intensive travel is hard - and I wish I had taken the rest of the week off. I've never ran out of vacation time in my five years of full-time employment with this company; however, I am paranoid about not having enough in the spring. This is unlikely to happen - so why do I feel like I need to have an imbalance when returning from vacation?
