One thing about living on Ocracoke is that it is too easy to get into "life mode" rather than "vacation mode". What I mean by that is that, too often, I find that several days have gone by, and I haven't done anything to enjoy any of the lovely aspects of Ocracoke which most people who are on vacation experience daily. I don't go to the beach anywhere near often enough, as one example.
The exception to this is when I have guests. Then, it's easy to do things like go to the beach, for a sail on the Schooner Windfall, out to eat, shopping, and to the Coffee Company for smoothies (or the Slushy Stand for ice cream), since I want to share those (and many other Ocracoke experiences and areas) with my friends and family. When my sister was here for several weeks, we did most of those things (plus a few others), and I enjoyed it very much.
Unfortunately, now that I haven't had any visitors for several weeks, I haven't been getting out and doing those types of things nearly enough. Today, my third day in a row of craving a smoothie, I realized I needed to do something to rectify the situation! So I hopped on my bike and went to get a smoothie. I ran into the Coffee Shop just a few minutes before they closed (whew!) and enjoyed a terrific strawberry-chocolate concoction with whipped cream. Yum! Now hopefully I won't go another several weeks before doing something fun like that again!
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2 comments:
Welcome to the *real world*. Life is about responsibilities and obligations and no matter where you live, those are a part of your daily life. Vacations are supposed to be an escape from those burdens, so the thought that just because you live in a tourist/vacation destination you will live in an eternal state of "vacation" is delusional at best. In some ways, you almost ruin the vacation aspect of where you live, since it becomes harder and harder to separate from the responsibilities of day-to-day life, just as you're evidently finding out right now. Imagine how much you'd enjoy Ocracoke after a while if you were sweating your butt off working for $2.50 per hour plus tips, while living in rented room.
Hmmm. I'm a believer in the concept of "both, and", rather than "either, or". Life is not ONLY about obligations and responsibilities. It is BOTH that AND watching sunsets, spending time with people you love, eating ice cream, reading a book in a hammock, etc, etc, that have nothing to do with responsibility or obligation.
That - the importance of balance - was my point. I don't think life can (or should) be "an eternal state of vacation", here or anywhere else. But neither should it be about responsibilities and obligations, to the exclusion of everything else.
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