The Ultimate Staycation

In my earlier blog post, I commented that I hardly have any personal time. Now I have lots of it, and I am oscillating between hating and loving it.

The reason for the luxury? A bout of chicken pox.

The ugly, red, pulsating dots appeared after a day or two of feeling generally unwell. I glared at them in the mirror, and said to my spouse: “Do you think this is what I think it is?”

Apparently, it is. My doctor gave me a week of medical leave, with the instructions for me to confine myself to my own house.

At the start of it, I felt weak and tired and grumpy. I was not in the mood to feel anything but sick. And ugly. I religiously avoided all mirrors as I could not stand the sight of the dots, which unfortunately, congregated on my face.

All this changed in a matter of two to three days. The dots started being less itchy and blotchy, and I became much better. I started enjoying the luxury of waking up, checking on a few office emails, and having lots and lots of time of ME time. Yippee! No little toddlers to chase and shout after. Less troublesome office matters (I was technically working from home, but maybe because I was not in office to attend to matters, the emails also became lesser).

So what did I do to fill up all those long hours? Watching a Korean Drama, of course. It was pure decadence. I would watch one episode after another, with no one to tell me that it was such a time waster. Of course, there was this little voice in my head. But I chased it away with the sweep of my imaginary hand, telling myself that I would not have this luxury for some time to come.

This was really the Ultimate Staycation! Why do we need to spend hundreds of dollars to stay in a hotel, when my own home was comfortable enough for me? Most importantly, it was heavenly to have so much time on my hand.

I always knew that good things have to come to an end. After I finished the last episode of my Korean drama, I was determined not to start another one again. In any case, the timing was just nice as I was about to head back to office in a day’s time. Unfortunately, the little red dots (pun not intended) had other intentions. While most of them have dried up, there were still a few left. The doctor assessed that I was still unfit for work, and gave me another week of medical leave.

And here is where I am now. Boredom with a capital B.

Now I am counting the days before I head back to office. A few more days to go!