Mile high club

Today's post comes to you from high above Europe. The family and I are on our way to Spain for a couple of weeks, headed to the beaches of Malaga. This will be our first beach trip in just over two years, and I have to admit to having forgotten how all of this flying stuff works. I couldn't find the airport parking this morning, couldn't remember how to put a luggage tag on, and definitely forgot that a certain backpack that I have sets the scanner off every single time. I suspect it's because I'm always carrying enough cables with me to open my own electronics kiosk.

Despite my preponderance of cables, I'm looking forward to unplugging a bit during this vacation. There's three of us on the trip, but we only brought one computer, and the apartment where we're staying doesn't have wifi. I have two paper books with me ("Second Foundation" and a Nixon biography that my friend Simon pushed on me–don't worry, neither Simon, myself, or the author of the book is a fan of Tricky Dick), an ebook reader stuffed full of digital goodies (I'm planning to read "The First 90 Days" in preparation for starting a new job in the fall, and Kristen Ghodsee has two new books out that I've been wanting to read), and a Remarkable e-paper notepad that I'm writing this here post on.

Um, reading back over that last paragraph, I realise that unplugging might be a bit of a relative thing. In any case, I'm going on vacation, and I'm determined to actually do some vacating!

In between my reading and beaching and watching the final stages of the women's Euros, I will endeavor to continue my daily writing, a task I actually failed in yesterday. You see, what happened was, I had just poured myself a lovely cup of coffee and sat down at my computer, ready to regale y'all with the story of my university application, when my wife popped in, phone in hand. It turns out that we needed some extra travel document that we didn't have, and the only place to obtain it was the city centre. By the time we got back from that unscheduled errand, it was time to pack and clean up the house (some friends are going to water the plants when we're gone, and we don't want them to encounter the horrors of an unwiped kitchen counter!) and then go over to some friends for dinner and then I was sooooo tired when we got back and also the dog ate my keyboard, so you see I just couldn't write my blog on time.

If that sounded like a bunch of excuses to you, you're spot on. I had a myriad of opportunities to do some writing earlier in the day before all of that stuff happened. I suspect the secret of those people who do write every day is having a routine of some sort, which I currently do not have. Let's see if I can get in the habit of sitting down with my morning coffee and writing before I check my email and get distracted by that one fix I have to make to some code or bill I have to pay or person I have to correct on Twitter.

Another thing I hope to accomplish over the next two weeks is to enjoy myself. Like many people, I have a tendency to focus on the minor annoyances in life rather than the good stuff that comprises the vast majority of my life. As I noted a few weeks back, making a concerted effort not to be annoyed by my fellow commuters ("commuting" is this thing we used to do when we worked in these buildings called "offices") made that facet of my life much more pleasurable, so I know that I do have a choice in the matter and that making the right choice will make me happier. So easy to do, right?

Wish me luck!