The Vacation Recovery Ratio

We do a fair amount of traveling in the Long family, and after careful observation I have found the following to be true: Once I return, the number of days that it takes me to get back in the groove is exactly equal to the number of days I was gone. This 1:1 ratio explains why I haven’t written a post since right before we went to the beach.

We left for the beach August 11, and though we drove back on 18th, my sister and nephew were here through the 21st (thereby extending the vacation mode). That was 11 days. And 11 days later it is September 1st and I am finally back in the groove of my regular life, being productive and civilized and actually feeling like writing this post. The days prior to today were spent being withdrawn and sullen and lamenting having started this blog because I had not a single thing to say. I found myself "off my game": missing birthdays, not returning emails, blowing off appointments. The only thing I felt like doing was sitting in silence and reading, or napping with the dogs. In short, after spending 11 wonderful days continually in the company of people, I needed solitude in an equal portion.

Yesterday was a cloudy morning. I lay in bed, dogs snoring by my side, reading Abigail Thomas’s wonderful memoir, A Three Dog Life. Though Thomas’s book is about recovering from a tragedy not a mere vacation, one passage provided solice that what I was doing was perhaps not only acceptable but warranted. She is writing about napping with her dogs:

"After a bit Harry starts to snore, Rosie rests her chin on my ankle, the blanket rises and falls with our breathing, and I feel only gratitude. We are doing something as necessary to our well-being as food or air or water. We are steeping ourselves, reassuring ourselves, renewing ourselves, three creatures of two species, finding comfort in the simple exchange of body warmth."

The Vacation Recover Ratio does not seem to hold true for my husband, who jumps back into his regular routine immediately. Maybe the ratio only holds true if, like me and Abigail Thomas, you are someone who re-energizes through introversion rather than extroversion. Or maybe the ratio only holds true if your life provides the freedom to actually take the recovery period. Of course, I don’t really have the freedom to fully give in to the VRR. During my recovery days the world still demands things of me and I acquiesce moodily, albeit to the bare minimum I can get away with.

But maybe if I could really do nothing for several days, I could reduce the Vacation Recovery Ratio to 1:2 — one day recovery for every two days gone — or even 1:3. It would require telling the world that I am going to be gone longer than I actually am, and then not answering the phone or email, and eating meals out so as to avoid grocery shopping. But it could be done. Hmmm…