Farewell to Holidayland

My sojourn in Holidayland is over, and I am back at work today.

It was a very nice holiday. As usual, I didn’t go anywhere. Finances and the cats keep me tied close to home. It has been suggested to me in the past that I could hire a cat-sitter if I wished to go away, but I don’t find that feasible. I have two diabetic cats, each of which receives a different kind of insulin, by a different kind of injection. One must be kept sequestered during the day when I am absent, and during the night; he receives his meals separately. Another cat is so sensitive to most foods that even a lick of an inappropriate dish will cause her to start vomiting, and that won’t stop without medicine from the veterinary; she doesn’t eat every time the others do, so she must be fed whenever she will eat. They are lucky I can’t afford to travel.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed my days off. I had time for all the things my job keeps me from doing. There were the chores, of course - chores not too big to finish at other times, but big enough to take up most of a day off, and therefore discouraging to perform with only one or two days available on weekends. I completed ninety per cent of the design work for the upcoming PAW Society calendar, something which takes two to three hours a page, and therefore would use up whole weekends, if I didn’t have my holidays to work on it. And I spent time with the cats, listened to music, wrote, read, watched movies, and relaxed.

Coming back to work, however, merely emphasizes how unimportant a job often is. That’s not to say it isn’t necessary, but I think we must differentiate between importance and necessity; the two are not synonymous. Bosses rarely understand that, which I suppose is why I am not a boss. There are certainly important jobs - but mine doesn’t fall into that category. For me, it provides money to exist (barely) and takes up time that could be spent doing something more valuable. I am not alone in this predicament, of course, though that doesn’t make me feel better.

But for now, it is back to the tiresome routine of Workadayland, and farewell to Holidayland. Just 49 more weeks until I see it again!