Just a week after we became empty nesters, my husband had a conference at a Loews resort in Orlando and asked me to come along. I did, and brought work with me, planning to work at least part of the time from the hotel room. It sounded like a good idea; time away by ourselves in a nice resort. What did I want to do? Sleep, read books, swim, relax by the pool, eat out, talk, follow my friends and family on FaceBook and through their blogs. (See my son's blog about his year in Spain at d4willia.blogspot.com)
I was surprised when people asked me what we were going to do in Orlando - go to Disneyworld? Universal Studios? Epcot Center? Not even interested. My dad told me the Tupperware museum was not to be missed. But we missed it. And I didn't even mind. The thought of scheduling the time, fighting traffic, driving in an unfamiliar big city when we really only had part of one day (Saturday) without the conference going on, just wasn't appealing. We chose to spend it instead with Jim's cousin Rena and her daughter, and enjoyed a visit and meal with them at their new home overlooking a pretty lake. Rachel, Rena's daughter, has a nice collection of amphibian pets that we got to meet, as well as a couple of birds. She's a hands-on little girl; not scared of anything. Good for her--as a biologist, I was impressed!
I guess I'm getting truly old. It used to be that vacations were all about going places, seeing the sights, experiencing everything we could. This time I wanted peace and quiet. It was very restful - the quiet hotel room, the beautiful gardens, relaxed schedule. Just enough activity with a social dinner for the conference, an hour or two of shopping at the shops within walking distance, a visit with Jim's cousin. We could have been anywhere with nice surroundings, and I would have enjoyed it just as much. I suppose in all honesty if we had never been to Orlando or a Disney resort before we might have been more tempted to go to the theme parks. Or if we had grandkids to take along. (This is NOT a hint, Lydia and Derek!)
Life is still too full, but it's slowing down. I found time to read and think and relax, and even visit a spa. I took a water taxi between the various resort hotels to get there - free and quite beautiful.
One thing not free and that I found annoying at the resort was that everything had an 18% gratuity automatically added to the cost. Even a pedicure at the spa and lunch ordered at the pool-side restaurant. I didn't order room service because I wanted to avoid extra fees. The meal was reasonable enough, but I would prefer to do my own tipping. Oh well, I guess it's bad form to grump about a gratuity charge when the cost of the hotel was covered by Jim's employer.
A brief aside here - we learned about a fun website at the conference called Wordle.net. You can put your text, such as this blog, into their website, and they create a "Word Cloud" based on the words used. The more often the word is used, the larger and bolder it appears in the Word Cloud. It can serve as a summary for a training, an introduction, a section divider, a decoration for an event, or whatever else you can think of. I will put this blog into Wordle. I bet the word Rest shows up rather large. (To my surprise, it didn't. But common words are removed, maybe that's why.) If you want to see this blog in Wordle, click on this link here - I tried to post the Word Cloud but couldn't figure it out:
<a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2475390/blog1"
title="Wordle: blog1"><img
src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/2475390/blog1"
alt="Wordle: blog1"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd"></a>
I mentioned not wanting to do anything in Orlando to a friend my age with slightly older children. She actually got it. Her favorite vacations were all about rest. After 23 years of rasing my kids, working full time almost all of those years, I feel tired to the bone. I don't want to join anything, take on any new projects, or even answer the phone much of the time. When did I turn so anti-social? I've always been a very social person.
I've had a sore throat and cold for a few days, running a low grade fever. I'm a terrible patient; probaby shouldn't blog until I'm better. Maybe I'll be less grumpy then. Or maybe I'm just missing my kids. Or maybe both. Anyway, thanks for indulging my meandering thoughts.
Next post - our nest will no longer be empty! Stay tuned......
Tammi
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