Wednesday, August 15, 2001

The Setting Sun

It's a nice evening for sitting out on the back porch and watching the sun set. It was cold and damp this morning but the weather got a lot nicer around mid-day. I finished changing all of my travel plans today for my vacation at the end of August. I'm really looking forward to getting away for 13 days, seeing my cousin, her husband, and my god-daughter for the first time in almost a year, and just getting my mind completely off of work for a while.

I can tell that I'm flirting with burn-out (which actually started back in March); so the upcoming vacation comes at a very good time. I think this will be a very relaxing vacation, even with all of the driving because I'm taking my time and I think I've left plenty of room in my travel schedule for the unexpected. One of my close friends is a little envious of my road trip (I think she'd like to stow away). It'll be an adventure to see if I can survive for that long by myself living out of hotels and my car. I think that I'll be more likely to meet interesting people because I'll be by myself then if I was traveling with a companion (when traveling together you tend to discuss rather than ask the nearest bystander).

I was asked today whether I got tired of living by myself and not seeing anyone else during the day (because I work from home). I guess I do, but it takes me more than a couple of days without any meaningful conversation before I start going stir crazy. She's a teacher, so during the summer she gets antsy after a day or two and heads out to the mall just to get a little interaction from the store clerks. Can't say I blame her, I've done the same thing in the past after being cooped up in the house all weekend. Recently, I'm more likely to load the bike onto the back of the car and go for an evening ride. It gets me out of the house and I don't feel like I have no life. The weekends are probably the worst for me because during the week, I'm getting lots of phone calls and e-mails from co-workers, but unless I've made plans on the weekend I typically don't see or talk to anyone else. (That's changing lately.)

My past girlfriend complained that it seemed like I isolated myself more and more. She was concerned when I made the job change and started working from home full-time. I'm aware that it's easier to become socially isolated now that I'm working from home, but then it gets balanced out by not having to deal with as much of the office politics and petty turf wars that go on when you work in an office. So I've been gradually building my network of contacts, trying to make a point to see some people that I didn't have time to see when I was commuting an hour and a half per day (on top of working 9 or 10 hour days). When I'm at work, I like to concentrate on work (I can be social with co-workers but it's very rare that I would end up building a friendship with any of them). So working from home makes it easier to seperate work and personal life issues like that.

posted by Wuphon's at 8:18 PM