I’m going to attempt to be “OOO” = Out Of Office this weekend for the long weekend. Work has been crazy ever since I started my new job. Although it may seem like I’ve been on several adventures, work stress never leaves and I’m often online early mornings or later evenings. I’ve been in “fight or flight” mode since April. I’m pretty sure my cortisol levels are not healthy.

I really can’t believe that it’s the end of August. Our youngest started school on Monday at the Technical College, but it’s also his senior year in high school. We recently took a trip to MT to see our other son. We had a great time and quite a few unique experiences. This month has been filled with work, travel, canning, family surgery, more canning and more work. August will end with a trip to Seattle… without my computer!

Why Seattle? Why not?! We have not been there before, August is the least rainy month in Seattle, and if I don’t force myself to leave work behind, I might snap. We will do a quick 2 full days of tourist things and then fly back. Driving there is not on my bucket list and we are under time constraints. I have my notebook of ideas (no spreadsheets this time, uncle Brian), some suggestions from friends and the advice of strangers in a “Seattle tourism” Facebook group. Will I still worry about work? Probably. But I will not be checking emails or capacity charts or batch numbers for almost 4 days.

Life is short. You’ve seen the stories & heard about people who wait for retirement before they have their adventures only to get them cut short by health issues or other things. I’m not waiting. I’m having experiences while I can. I’m grabbing those 4 day weekends, skipping a farmers market or two and seeing something new. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. I don’t currently have the mental capacity to work on my Copywriting dream or write my next book. I’m just trying to hang on. I’ve lost friends, had strained relationships and have not been kind to myself in the last few years. I’m not the same. I’ve shifted timelines but I don’t think I am done shifting yet. I feel like there is more. There is more to life than work and there are more changes to come.

Even though I haven’t written much in the last few months, life sure has been going at full speed. Tonight we did 32 jars of hot salsa and 35 jars of pickles (& I had an hour conference call). Sometime before Friday at noon, I’ll throw some things in a suitcase and call it good. If I forget something, Seattle has stores. For almost 4 days, I will be OOO. I’ll report back if you’d like to hear about it. Travel blogger is on my someday/wish list. I just don’t think people vacation hard like we do. We try to cram as much in as we can. Maybe there is a market for it though?? We’ll see.

Peace be with you on your journey of enough. And yes, our journey will include coffee from the original Starbucks (even though we prefer our local coffee shop with my favorite barista).