Is it a vacation?

I’m taking some time off of work next week. I have stopped using the phrase ‘I’m going on vacation’ because then people ask me where I’m going. But I’m never going anywhere. In fact I will probably not get any further than my backyard the entire week. Now this isn’t an ‘oh woe is me I never get to go anywhere’ tale. I don’t want to go anywhere but I also don’t want to keep explaining that I don’t have any plans. Some people seem to find it odd but I think it is perfectly reasonable. My three favorite activities (if you can call them that) are reading, eating and napping. (Yes, I’m lazy I know but there it is.) And I think it makes a lot of sense to want to do what you like best while you are on vacation. But there is more to it than that. I take time off from work to relax. And I don’t find making or following plans relaxing. I’m not opposed to doing things exactly it’s just that I don’t want to feel as if there are things I have to do. If you plan a trip you have to buy the tickets (making sure you get a good price), you have to pack, you have to make sure you don’t miss the plane, and then when you get there you go lots of places and do lots of things because you don’t want to miss anything or waste one moment in this destination that you spent all this time and effort to get to. Even if you just make plans with friends, or to go to see a movie you have to remember that you made the plans, you have to make sure you are up and out of your pajamas, and you have to make sure you are on time. But I want a few days when I don’t have to worry about what time it is, or hear the alarm clock go off, or answer the phone. I want to be able to roll out of bed at 10:00 AM and slump around the house and maybe read or watch TV or surf the internet, or all three, or none at all. Then if I decide to go out or do something I can, or if I decide not to there is no one waiting for me cursing me for not showing up. And then when I go to bed (after watching the late night movie because I don’t have to get up in the morning) I don’t have to feel bad that I didn’t do anything because I have, in fact, accomplished everything I had planned to do. I knew someone who thought it was a waste of a vacation if she didn’t have a trip planned. I think it’s a waste of a vacation if you fill it up with things you feel you have to do. To each their own I guess. Personally I will continue to plan my plan-free vacations.