Countdown to....

Ever since I got back from my winter break, I've been toying with the idea of moving over to Maui for a bit. Time to relax, recharge, refocus and do all those other "re" words that I put off all too often in my real life here in the city of Angels.

The problems I found with my life came into real focus when I left it. I work too much. I don't have enough down time. I have a job that follows me everywhere I go. I can't often get a day when I don't get a phone call, email or other communication from one of my many colleagues and clients. Most of the time I love my job. I get to work with fun, creative people whom I have come to love dearly and fast moved from the realm of "colleague" to "friend."

But after a recent response to an email where I explained to a client that I was unavailable for her one day out of the many I have worked with her because I was booked with another client, I realized that this particular client seems to feel that I am hers and hers alone. And that the team I work with for her is at her beck and call at any given time. Even while I was on the island, I got emails, texts and phone calls. It was New Year's Day. I had plans to spend it hungover at the beach truly enjoying a day off with nothing to do. I got three emails. Now, she might be the sort of person who enjoys nothing more than letting her job rule her life and letting her job define her. However, I am not. When I go on holiday, I want to do just that - BE ON HOLIDAY. No work, not a thing to think of, no stress.

I came to the conclusion that it is time to refocus my life and figure out where I went so horribly wrong. To that end, I'm headed back to that island in approximately two months. I am planning on staying there for at least a month and maybe not coming back at all.

So begins the countdown. I have many things on my to do list. I have paperwork and a closet of crap to get rid of. I have some further training to do on a completely different and much more physical, yet relaxing potential career path. I have to quit smoking again (yes, said client has driven me back to the occasional cigarette after a two year absence of the addiction). I have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. But I think it will all be worth it. Very very worth it. I mean, after all, who wouldn't want to go live on a tropical island where the most dramatic thing that happens in a given day is whether or not you saw whales breaching off the coast.

And here we go. First on the list - somehow get through this next week. The job I am on is turning my hair gray. It's four more days of crazy schedules and more than a few insanely tense moments to be expected.

But I think it will all be worth it. I hope it will be. So here I go.

Wish me luck.

XO
The Tank Gyrl