After a little glitch that delayed my entry, I’m finally back (my car battery died on Tuesday morning, and the trips to and from the shop, and needing to bum rides to and from work from ever patient Jim, meant that there was no time to write an entry till today).

One of my coworkers asked me today how my vacation was, to which I replied “Fabulous!”  She then asked me if it’s true that taking two weeks off is far better than  taking just one week.  She’s read that one only truly begins to relax after the first week of vacation, which is why two weeks of vacation leaves a person so much more relaxed and happy.  I would totally agree.  TOTALLY.  By the ninth or tenth day of my vacation, I started to feel like myself again.  I had energy, I was happy, and great ideas for new programs at the library kept popping into my head.  (More about those ideas in the future, when I’m a little closer to launching them.)

And the best part was that I mostly stayed at home for vacation.  We spent three nights at Jim’s father’s Cape house with all of Jim’s siblings, but other than that we were at home.  The house was clean, the laundry was always done, and we got to explore local attractions that we don’t normally visit.  Jim and I went to the Peabody Essex Museum and the Salem Willows; we went to the awesome Clinton movie theater that serves dinner and beer; we had dinner at the restaurant where we held our wedding reception; we hung out at the Cape, including a lot of time spent on the beach; and we worked on building our snazzy new back steps.  And then I had a week of vacation after Jim went back to work, and I used that week to go to the Concord Museum and DeCordova Museum; I took several walks at the Old North Bridge, with stops in the Old Manse and the Buttrick Mansion; I window-shopped in Concord and had a long chat with my old boss; and I bought my art supplies for my upcoming drawing class.  Best of all, I got to share the trip to DeCordova with my dad, and on a day with absolutely perfect weather, so that we could see Wachusett Mountain from the rooftop observation deck on top of the museum.

So yes, I would say that two weeks of vacation is the way to go.  Rested, rejuvenated, relaxed – I’m a different person than I was at the end of summer reading.  I’ve even determined that I’ll not get upset by little things at work, and that I’ll always be positive and happy at work, avoiding stress and crankiness at all costs.  Of course, the universe decided to test my resolve right off the bat, as I bounced out the door on Tuesday morning in my new red shoes all ready to go back to work…got into my car…turned the key in the ignition…and only got a “click-click-click” and some warning lights in response.  But I’m happy to say that I survived that test pretty well.  Hopefully I’ll be able to keep Happy Abby around for a long while.