Over the past 11 months, I've taken a total of only two days off work. Granted, I've gotten a few short breaks due to federal holidays and whatnot, but I haven't really had any true vacations. While I know that there are people out there that work a lot harder than I do (both physically and mentally), the past several months have gotten to me quite badly.

The first big thing that's caused a lot of stress falls into the personal category and is therefore off limits for now, but sometime in the future I may feel the need to vent it all out here. Just another reason for you to keep reading the site. Yeah, I know that a lot of people keep online journals and share every juicy bit of their personal lives, but I simply can't do that at this juncture and so I'll simply leave it at that.

The second part of the equation has unfortunately been my job. While it has gotten considerably better in the past couple weeks, the closing months of the summer (August, September) definitely took their toll on me. As the lead graphics person for one project that contained over 2500 graphics and head of another that ran about 800, I definitely had my hands full trying to keep everything in check. There was a couple week period in there where I literally had a stomach-ache every day after lunch, simply because I'd worked myself into such a frenzy by 1pm that by the time I actually put food into my body, my stomach just didn't seem to agree with it no matter what it was.

After the two projects came to an end, things got considerably better for me in regards to work, but it was also about this time that I started to do a lot more work on my web site. While I completely enjoy all the work that I do for it, it was something that has gradually built up and started to take it's toll on me. After working on a computer for 9 hours during the day, I would come home after work most nights and put in 2 to 3 more on my home machine. Although I have the fortune of a good monitor, both my eyes and my hands (even though I practice good stretching techniques) have begun to somewhat have their fill with the routine. Not only that, but there were many times that I'd get so absorbed in what I was doing (sometimes this is a good thing) that I would forget that I was supposed to be doing things with people and would end up sitting at home in front of my computer screen. It was a big hermit time for me.

Then, just this last week, the opportunity arose for me to take a couple days off work and just get away from it all for awhile. My parents were taking their usual early December ski trip and like usual asked whether I'd like to go (in the past, I've always had to bow out due to other conflicts). Now, though, instead of checking my web stats and e-mail every day and wondering whether I should write something, I'm going to shut down my computer and leave it off for 5 days while I'm gone to Colorado snowboarding. Since I don't have a laptop, I've just decided that I'm not even going to try to check anything. Instead of worrying about my site or anything else related to the web, it's just going to be me, my parents, the mountains and some good books that I've been meaning to read for awhile now.

Not only am I going to leave behind my computer and everything that goes along with it, but I'm not taking any of my CDs and I probably won't call anyone that I know during the trip. It's not that I'm trying to give everyone the cold shoulder, but I feel like I need a break away from everything for awhile. I think that not only will the time apart to think will do me good, but it will give me a newfound appreciation for things that may have grown stale. Like a true geek, though, I've written enough ahead that I won't even have to skip any days updating the site. Although I know that not very many people even read what's put out, it's just something that I sort of do on instinct.

So now, I'm off to the Rocky Mountains for 5 days of snowboarding during the day and kicking back at night. They've gotten nearly 30 inches of snow in the past week or so and I've been told that on weekdays in early December, the slopes are very nearly desolate because it hasn't yet reached holiday season so most people are still either at work or in school.

Needless to say, I'm very much looking forward to things. Not only have I never gone snowboarding when the mountain hasn't been busy, but I think that the break away from computers and nearly everyone I know will give me time to think about a lot of different things and hopefully come up with some good ideas for others. Maybe something really crazy will happen and you'll hear about it here.

As long as I don't break something.

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