Well shoot, I’d prepared this post a year and a half ago and never published it! So here you go, for the record:

To welcome in 2023, some friends and I decided to go to Austin to visit our friend who moved there recently. It was my first time out there and it felt strangely like I was in a foreign land at times. Austin feels like a gangly teenager to me, in its awkward growth phase where some things are matured and some things are underdeveloped. I also found it to be a great place for shopping inspiration, lol — I ended up noting a bunch of things to look for deals to buy, ranging from jewelry and accessories to shoes and maybe even an instrument.

It was a grand time, trying all sorts of vegan places, playing a ton of pickleball, experiencing a very Texas New Year’s Eve (the only time I felt like I was in Texas), kayaking and chasing birds and turtles, checking out some cool instruments, learning a bit of banjo (I learned Auld Lang Syne, of course), and then working the rest of the time before going home to a very rainy SoCal.

It’s been a hectic year, so completely different from 2023 where I traveled and got to experience so much. This time around, I’ve been mostly stuck in SoCal, not letting the gas off the pedal at work to drive a huge launch that was planned for January 01, then got pushed twice until July 01 and finally started happening a few weeks ago. After launch and during the initial phases, I made sure to stick around to guide it, then we started recruiting for a Senior Director of IT so I can hand off these types of duties to someone to focus on it. As soon as we made a decision last week, I took this week off for my first true break this year.

It was just in time, as I’ve been so exhausted non-stop for over 7 months that I could barely hang on anymore. My main goal has been to decompress and try to unwind, though I think it would take weeks to truly achieve that. Nonetheless, I focused on not feeling like I have to do any particular thing, and just allowing myself to do whatever felt like the right thing in the moment. I had a few ideas of things I could try to do, like build various furniture pieces I bought (4 out of 5 completed!), go to read at the beach (just did that today), hang out at a park (maybe another time?), join a whale watching tour (TBD, could still happen), or plan some future trips (expecting to do that tomorrow).

With this peaceful time to myself, what I realized is that I haven’t had a chance to enjoy my local surroundings in the way that we used to back in school, with summer breaks. I’m suddenly noticing and experiencing all sorts of little things about the rhythm of my community that I could only catch during a normal workday when I’m not working too. For example, all the construction that my neighborhood has going on! Not only did I have no clue that my neighbor at the end of the street was completely re-paving their courtyard, I also saw quite a few other projects ongoing, which is surprising given our community only has something like 168 homes. I also saw activity at a van that is always parked in the same spot and I had wondered if it was possibly abandoned.

Similarly, I was admiring a gorgeous magnolia tree in another neighborhood and found out that home does have residents — I’d wondered about it before, since its flora often attracts cool creatures when I pass by on walks. As with most homes in the area, I wasn’t sure if it had full-time residents, since I hardly ever see activity from any homes. Everyone pretty much stays put (a lot of retirees), it seems, especially in the recent heat.

I’ll have to set aside more time like this periodically, so I can experience my own area as a vacation, instead of always running off to jetset somewhere else. It’s been really cool, like discovering a secret world that opens up only when we are all at work. I’m super grateful that I stumbled upon this unintentionally, just because I needed time off and was too drained to go anywhere for a vacation. Instead, I’ve been able to do a ton of chores, start organizing things I’ve put off for ages, and gain an appreciation for my own town. I hope that you choose to try out a staycation like this for yourself sometime, and find similar gains as well!