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Monday, March 16, 2009

Something is ending...and something begins

It's been a good run, but it had to end sometime. After being off work for the last eight days, I am headed back to the real world tomorrow morning at 9AM sharp. I could definitely get used to this many days off in a row. But really, when you get right down to it, I'm ready to go back - probably more ready than I want to admit here tonight (and the vacation days would run out eventually.) There is the requisite bit of pre-going-back-to-work apprehensiveness, but it's not as bad as it could be. I work weird shifts all week so nothing like getting right back into it. I am fully anticipating some kind of re-entry syndrome to rear its head this week, but I'm tough and I can handle it. Getting back into the swing of things is never easy, especially after a week's worth of no work-related issues getting in my way. Burning up on re-entry is always a distinct possibility - and something that's happened to me before.

But it has been a good time off. I feel refreshed and ready to face the world again. I don't know what it has in store for me tomorrow when I head back out into it for the first time in over a week, but I know that I can handle it.

Tonight while I was doing the dishes, I got a sudden urge to listen to Ray of Light. I don't usually get that urge. I know that it was a huge critical and commercial success for Madonna, as well as a fan favorite, but for me, it just hasn't aged all that well. But the urge to listen to it tonight was unstoppable. Even though I think it has some glaring faults, there is something centering about that record. The song that resonated with me tonight was "Nothing Really Matters." It was the song that I always thought was the one of the best examples of Madonna cutting loose while still putting forth a "serious" message. Also, the video is kind of batshit crazy.




My favorite part of the song is the bridge. Even though the lyrics are simple, they pack a punch when heard in the finished product.

Nothing takes the past away
Like the future
Nothing makes the darkness go
Like the light

But rather than just jettison the immediate past, I'm going to try to take it with me. It's been fun, but there has to be a way to maintain the good part of "vacation brain."

I got 0% of the amount of continuing education done that I intended, but I got 150% of the recharging done that I intended. And that's worth quite a bit.

(sorry if I made anyone - all 13 of you - think I was ending the blog because of my post title! Like you could get rid of me that easily.)

3 comments:

John said...

Um, that's EXACTLY what I thought was coming. *phew*

Arvind said...

I Have to disagree with the 'real world' thing. I am not working so i can say this :-). Real world is vacation, travelling and seeing new places. A bit inspired by the movie 'gods must be crazy'

Dan said...

It's easy to see both as the "real" world. My work life is different from the rest of it, but I probably have less discordance between those two halves of my personality than ever before in my life. It probably comes with age and not giving a shit what people think, but also recognizing that those with no sense of propriety are frequently doomed to be bitten by it.