I have 4 more days of work before I’m off for a week. I really need the down time and I’m more aware of that than ever. Normally, I save enough vacation time to take the week before Christmas off, but this year, the dissertation trip ate up almost all of it. I’m in that mode of having some loose ends to tie up, but nothing major, and no motivation to work on or start anything big. There are things looming after the break, and I’m excited about them all, but I just can’t make myself think about them too much before I’m going to hit a week of doing nothing. I really will do nothing over that time–at least nothing that requires brain energy. The most complex thing I plan to do is work jigsaw puzzles and play video games. There’s holiday baking too, but that’s not really terribly complex.

I seem to get in this mode before every break. At some point, I just feel myself disconnect. I manage to go through the motions, but that’s it. When I had grading, I didn’t really get like this because I had this mad rush to get everything done before whatever deadline I’d set for myself (or was thrust upon me)–and then I could go into break mode. When I’m not teaching though, there is no sprint to the finish. It’s more like watching the last minutes of a game where you know who the winner will be. You watch just in case some miracle happens or there’s an interesting play, but your heart’s not really in it.