Fish and Company

The last time I felt like this I was three days into a two week vacation sitting on a round trip ticket wanting nothing more than to turn around and fly home.  My ticket was nonrefundable, and I was stuck.  I learned several things during that ill-fated trip: there's an art to knowing when you have worn your own welcome out, sometimes you have to make the most out of a sucky situation, and spending a lot of money doesn't actually make you feel any better.

I do believe that there is a fine art to visiting a place.  You want to stay long enough to fall in love with the place you're staying but short enough that you want to come back for more. I think about it like eating until you're 80% full.  Stay until you're 80% done with the place, then move on. It'll be there when you want to come back, and once in a life time visits are rare and usually only exist as a marketing scheme to sell overpriced tickets to exotic locations.

There's nothing quite as bad as getting done with a two week sabbatical in three days.  The hollowing feeling in your gut when you realize that, yes, you have ten more days stuck here.  Ten more days to wish you were anywhere else but where you are. Unless you're me-then you wish you were home.  I don't travel nearly as much as I used to and part of it is because I have become an insufferable homebody.

Why all the rain motifs?  It's been raining here for nearly two weeks.  Much like my vacation that I would like a refund on, I feel very trapped.  I can't get outside, and having holiday guests I can't go about my usual routine inside. Anyone who has had long term guests know that while things can go back to a sort of normal, it's an abridged normal.

I suppose this is the part where you expect me to give you a list of five ways to beat the rainy guest blues? That's what a good blogger would do. Unfortunately for you, I'm not a good blogger.  I don't have a magic set of steps you can follow or a cheery list of suggested activities to get your mind off of your situation.  I can offer you my condolences.

What I am going to do is lots of research on ocean conservation and watercoloring.  I'll tune into some British gardening shows on Youtube to get  gardening juices flowing for Spring, and I'll think to the moment when the sun is going to come out again, and I'm not sharing my bathroom with other people.