Staycation: A vacation spent at home or near home, doing enjoyable activities or visiting local attractions. — Dictionary.com
Labor Day weekend has historically been the beginning of my annual Staycation, usually 7-10 days which I take off of work and remain close to home. It’s also what I can afford to do as I make choices with my discretionary income and travel often falls off the list. It sounds a little mundane, yet it serves me. This time is a vacation from my routines and allows me to practice spontaneity and rather than check off things on my to-do list — which I regularly make for the week ahead — instead I make a “to-do only if I want to list,” which I add and subtract to as I wish. Yes, I’m a little OCD.
Today is Labor Day and Day 4 of my 11-day Staycation this year. Last year was an abbreviated four-day holiday Staycation weekend because I had started a new job and not yet accrued vacation time. Last year was also a pandemic Staycation, spent safer-at-home. I’ve scheduled a late summer/early fall Staycation during the Labor Day Holiday for probably the last 15 years or more. It’s my favorite time of year as the seasons begin to change.
Day 1:The first three days of my Staycation this year has been the opposite of last year. I’ve been spending time with friends and family, both bio and chosen, many who I haven’t seen in-person since the pandemic began. On Friday, I visited my sister Tami, her husband Ron, and niece Gemma on her first day as a senior in high school. They are members of my Pod Squad so we could visit indoors without masks since we’re all vaccinated.
Niece Gemma on her first day of school as a H.S. Senior. Caption: “I got this!”
Day 2: On Saturday, I celebrated the postponed wedding reception of longtime friends and chosen family Leanne and Rene (also members of my Pod Squad), who were married a year ago. In the end it was both a wedding reception and first anniversary party. They invited 50+ friends and family to a Rainbow Pride-themed reception at the Goodman Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin. We wore masks indoors except when eating or drinking. Antiseptic wipes and hand sanitizer were supplied.
Friends & chosen family, Leanne & Rene at their wedding reception postponed due to the pandemic on the 1st Anniversary of their wedding.
Leanne & Rene’s Wedding Reception Rainbow Pride Love!
Day 3: Yesterday, I joined family and friends of parents, niece Taryn and her husband Dan to celebrate the 1st Birthday of my grandniece, Declyn who was born year ago. The party was outdoors and attended by at least 40 people, both families, plus friends. Everyone was vaccinated except young children. (I made this assumption since my family is and Dan’s father is a doctor). We did go inside the house to drop off presents, grab food from the Mexican buffet of tamales, carnitas, sides, and desserts, and to use the bathroom.
Grandniece, Declyn, on her 1st Birthday.
Pandemic Staycation Redux: Safer-at-Home
As we’ve learned recently, due to COVID-19 surging, with more people being hospitalized and an increase in deaths, primarily children and the unvaccinated, and due to the highly transmissible Delta variant, plus the large percentage of unvaccinated people, it’s incumbent that we remain vigilant. It’s never good to assume, even if we’re vaccinated, wear masks indoors, socially distance, and practice good hygiene, that we’re protected from a breakthrough infection.
Pandemic Staycation
For those reasons, in three days, I’ll schedule a COVID test to make sure that I’m not infected even if I don’t have any symptoms. I’ll get the test result before I return to work at the LGBTQ+ Community Center, which is now open to the public.
What makes a Staycation?
For the remaining days of my Staycation, I have a couple of appointments, a doctor’s appointment and a haircut when I’ll wear a mask and socially-distance. On Thursday, I grocery shop every two weeks and always wear a mask, and I have a lunch date with a member of my Pod Squad, and hopefully we’ll eat outdoors, weather permitting. One day, wearing a mask, I’ll drop-in Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse to see the art show mounted by friend, Robin. Lastly, I may venture out to see a film only showing in a movie theater, The Card Counter, and yes, I’ll socially distance and wear a mask.
I’ve already received my seasonal flu shot, and I will schedule a Pfizer booster as soon as they’re available and I’m eligible. As the weather gets colder, we spend more time indoors, and as COVID-19 continues to surge, I will be reverting to my early pandemic safer-at-home behavior whenever possible and practical.
Pre-Pandemic Staycations
When September arrives, I’ve extended the Labor Day holiday by taking my annual Staycation. While students return to school after their families unpack from vacation and pack those back-to-school backpacks full of brand-new school supplies, I take a break from my day-to-day work routines and make my “to-do only if I want to lists.” For me the essence of a staycation is to practice spontaneity (yes, I admit that I need to practice), sleep in if I want to, brunch at home or out with friends, attend movie matinees on weekdays, plan lots of coffee dates, stay in pajamas if I want to and take a vacation from showering for a day, and most importantly write, and edit, and write some more. I read too, essays and blogs, opinion pieces online, poetry and movie reviews and reread my journals.
End of summer leaves. Photo Credit: John Quinlan, UW Arboretum.
What I’ve learned, the lessons from keeping and rereading journals, is that I’m a creature of habit. Though I allow my imagination to wander and travel places like a free spirit, I’m pretty earthbound and sensitive to the changing of the seasons, the length of daylight in a day, the heat of the sun on skin, the relationship of the stars and moon to our planet, the color of grass and leaves, the smell of the breeze as it changes from the chilled neutrality of winter to the smoky potpourri of autumn, and finally the conscious and unconscious cycles of my life.
Post-Pandemic Wishes for the Future
It’s my wish that the unvaccinated get vaccinated, that vaccines become available for children under 12 and parents act in the best interest of their children, that politicians and others stop spreading conspiracy theories and interfering with making schools, businesses, and public institutions safe for everyone and lastly, listen to science and medical experts, act responsibly on their own behalf and for their larger community.
We also need to protect women’s choices over what happens to their body, access to and the voting rights of all people, pay people a living wage, invest in infrastructure, including human services, and provide our healthcare and frontline workers with both the recognition and break they deserve, and finally, protect our planet and democracy before it’s too late!
I leave you with this poem:
The Solace of Ritual
“There is comfort in repetition and wonder in change.” Journal entry, 9/23/12
September’s sun filters through blue translucence
day and night becoming equal.
Temperatures rise and fall like tides;
ebb and flow between dawn and twilight,
gears of my Circadian clock adjusting.
Nesting urges permeate my behavior.
I swap out summer for winter bedding,
prepare for long nights and cold days.
Cupboards are filled as I squirrel away provisions.
I can smell leaves and home fires burning.
The changing season, trees ablaze,
transformation before dormancy, so begins
the hibernation of winter.
Golden, auburn, crimson, tawny shades of brown
fade to a grayscale palette.
I can hear the crisp sounds of leaves
dancing on sidewalks, and the wind begin to whistle.
Soon the swan song of September surrenders
to a calendar of holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving,
Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day and the New Year.
Memories recycle of seasons past
of people absent and places far away.
I soothe myself with the solace of ritual.
There is comfort in repetition
and wonder in change.
LLL
Additional Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!
Dispatch from the Hideout: Staycation Edition
The Pleasures (and Lessons) of a Staycation
Dispatch from the Hideout: Pod Squad 2.0
Dispatch from the Hideout: Premature Hibernation