Vacation Chris

Vacation Chris is the name my wife uses to describe me during times when I have no work commitments that are weighing my mind AND less distractions than normal. Often that persona is the sole purpose for getting out of town - meaning getting me away from my computer or other [feelings of] obligations for work or work related things.. I guess if I was a cell phone nutjob like most, that would also include shutting the phone off, but since I rarely talk on the phone, it's not an issue.

Here I am in Killington, VT, only a few hours away from finishing up the BEST [Building Effective Strategies for Teaching] institute. Yep. That's right. I'm on summer vacation and here I am at the end of 4 days of shop talk and education. Sheesh, really? It's actually been a good thing. I learned a few thing, but more so was reminded of the plethora of thing that have crossed my mind through the last year - my first year as a teacher - as well as hving some new ideas for how to run my class and for how we as a team need to make some changes at school.

But back to Vacation Chris. I need to figure out a way to do this at home... while here, I ran every day. My plan for summer is to lose some weight. 20 pounds would be the goal, but I'll take what I can get, as long as it's real loss and not that up and doy shit that happens all the time. I also read and played Lord of the Rings Online... most of what I had hoped to accomplish outside the organized events here. I half think not being at home helped, but that might be because the wife might have scheduled cleaning activities for me more often than I want (hehe, hi honey), which like a child I tend to fight, then revolt, then end up not doing anything productive. That sucks. Yeah, something I need to work on. Shhhh, you didn't hear that from me.

The week before this conference - or I should say the 3 week days and weekend after school ended, it just didn't feel like summer. I kept feeling the impending doom of this conference coming. More work! More school! More obligation. I decided a couple years ago that obligation is one of the things I despise the most. Commitment good. Obligation bad. Of course, the wife gets annoyed by it, but she's also supportive. This week she's also doing a conference, but she gets to go home after. The irony is that the weather here is less oppressive than there, so she's miserable. But I have called her each night - she likes that - and we IM'd a little bit as well. I will be happy to go home though. Just around a 1:45 minute drive I'm guessing.

Well, I'm home now... seems the hotel's connection dropped so I get fed up trying to locate a proper signal. I don't know how long the ride home was, I forgot to check my watxch when I walked in the door... but I'm home and it's time for the summer of Chris Part II.