The first night of returning home for a break seems to have become grounded in routine, ritual almost.

Upon arriving, I first spend some time greeting my cats, who I miss terribly and who are always happy to see me.

I then proceed to gorge myself on buffalo wings (oohhh, if only Danville were to build a BW3, my life would be complete), and then take a nice loooooong bath and patiently digest. This is usually accompanied by plucking up a book I’ve read a thousand times or so, but still enjoy for the sheer fact that it’s been so long since I had the opportunity or time to read for leisure.

Bedtime seems to always come around 10:00 that first night, as the previous few months rush to catch up with me in a matter of hours.

It is difficult, especially on short breaks, to re-accustom myself to resting. Every 7-15 minutes of every day, I mentally scan my schedule for the day ahead. I suppose it’s conditioning from a busy college schedule, and a way of keeping on top of everything that needs to be finished between the time I wake up and the time I crash to sleep. On break, it is even more difficult to convince myself that there really is *nothing* that needs to be done, and sometimes I have give myself filler tasks to satiate the need to plan (*ping* er..um…do laundry, update journal).

I need this break, I need to rest and let my body and mind knit themselves back into a functioning unit, but I have such a HARD TIME RELAXING! Sometimes I feel like I’m working as hard to chill out as when I’m busy, and I suppose that defeats the purpose.

Anyway, I must be off, I have to hurry up and rest! ^_^