In one of those amazing “management” decisions that makes you really question who is captaining your ship, my current client has implemented a cost cutting measure that requires all consultants to take the last two weeks of the year off. While this is a little rough for the independent consultants, who basically don?t eat if they?re not billing, I have the protection of a corporate flag flying overhead, so I was given a gift of two free weeks off! Without questioning the assumption that consultants are generally hired to help your company, telling those helpers that perhaps their cost is not worthwhile is somewhat akin to telling the doctor that you?d rather save the money on that triple bypass operation.

Despite my frequent chiding of Meghan for the occasional Jewish holidays the NYC school board bestows, she is working until Thursday, and I am the one who has temporarily dropped from the ranks of contributing members of society! It has been nice not to be rushing around doing laundry and packing up on Sunday evening, and Monday morning was a whole new world (queue the music from Disney?s Aladdin) without my alarm clock jolting me out of bed at 4AM.

My only problem with these free weeks from heaven is that I suffer from over plan-itis. As soon as I found out I had the time off, I began concocting schemes on how to spend it. Everything from winter motorcycle rides, repainting the apartment, to building a paper clock (that I?ve been working on for three years), to finding the cure for cancer and the common cold were on the agenda. Anytime I have some extra time on my hands, I?ll add to my agenda with enthuesastic abandon. ?Build Rome?? Sure, I?ve got the time! It wasn?t built in a day, but I?ve got 5!!!?

When my eyelids slowly cracked open on Monday, sans the grating monotone of the Sony Taskmaster, err alarm clock, my brain was a clean slate, elaborate plans and schemes buried somewhere behind the decision to start the day with plain, or blueberry waffles. I spent Monday and today with about four neutrons firing throughout the entirety of my brain. A leisurely breakfast, a little web browsing and suddenly day two of my unplanned vacation is over.

Tomorrow promises to be a new and exciting day however. I?ll soon be following in Meghan?s footsteps to dreamland, and am even planning on setting the alarm to get an early start. Now, if only I could remember where I put my chemistry books from college, that cancer cure must be right around the corner!

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