Dan and I took a long vacation after the summer season at Hershey ended and before substituting got into full swing. He had some random vacation time for a week in September, so we rented a small condo in Dewey Beach that my family used to rent when I was a little kid. This vacation was supposed to start with a Kings of Leon concert, but they canceled (because they’re rat bastards), so it started a day later with us staying in the campground for a couple of days before it was time to move into the condo. Now, I could write about all the delicious restaurants we visited (Mama’s Cantina in Ocean City, Dogfish Head Brewpub, The Cultured Pearl, Nalu, Dos Locos) or all the delicious beer we drank (most of which was Dogfish Head), but that would only serve to make you jealous and/or make my mouth water.

Instead, I’d like to reflect on how being on vacation for an entire week with no commitments made me feel:

Really, really good.

I cannot remember the last time I felt total relaxation. While I did have to complete schoolwork, I didn’t take any textbooks to the beach. I read a trashy magazine and a novel. On a day when the surf was too rough for me to swim, I moved my chair down to the water and watched the waves break. The ocean moved like poetry; the tide seemed to wash away so much of the negativity I carried to the shore with me.

Surprisingly, Dan and I handled living together for over a week pretty well. It was a big test for us as two people in a long distance relationship that normally don’t put up with each other for more than a few days. We slept 11 hours on one of our first days in the condo, and the following day we woke up in time to see the sunrise over the ocean.

It was a wonderful experience because in the shoulder season, the beaches aren’t as crowded and the town is quiet and sleepy. People can bring their dogs to the beach and we watched all the different breeds and how happy they were in the waves. By the middle of the week, we both felt a lot like Peter Gibbons in Office Space. Completely relaxed. Sometimes I felt as happy as the dogs.

I tried to bring the relaxation back with me. For the first time since starting grad school, I turned in an assignment late because I wanted to go to bed at a decent time and refused to stress out about deadlines. I am continuing to relax a bit this week, since yesterday was my 26th birthday and I am still working part-time at Hershey on Sundays and Wednesdays. I need to clean up my office and get my life organized before subbing picks up so that I can keep school, subbing and Hershey straight. I hope that I can keep this positive attitude.

Perhaps someday soon I’ll write a post about all that we imbibed whilst in Slower Lower Delaware. Hopefully with some pictures from Dan’s Nikon rather than my cell phone.