Why taking a week off made me busier than if I were working

Well, I promised you an explanation for why I was a bad blogger and didn’t post much over the past couple of weeks, and here it is.

I took a week off from my day job.

…That doesn’t make much sense, does it? Theoretically, if I took a week off work, shouldn’t I have had more time and not less? That was my assumption going into the week, anyway. I had planned to do some condo painting, get some writing done, and fit in plenty of relaxation — and then follow all of that up by dog-sitting for my brother and his girlfriend.

As it turns out, the condo painting and dog-sitting were the only things I managed to do. And I didn’t even manage to finish the condo painting.

I guess some back-story would be good here. I moved into my new condo almost two months ago, and right from the start I knew I wanted to paint the walls. I even had my colours picked out — I just needed to buy everything and get started.

Last week seemed like the perfect opportunity. I would be able to dedicate a good portion of Monday to Friday’s daytime hours to the task, and maybe even take some time on the weekend. That would leave me the evenings — and possibly even some breaks during the days — to get some writing done.

The first kink in this plan came on the Thursday before my week off, when my brother asked if I would be able to watch their dog from Thursday evening to Monday morning. I like their dog, and she’s usually pretty well-behaved. So I agreed, thinking that losing one day of painting wouldn’t be a problem.

The next kink? Painting takes quite a bit longer than I had anticipated — especially if you’re doing most of it yourself. I lost Monday because I needed to go pick up painting supplies and groceries, both of which I had planned to do on the weekend. I shrugged that off, though, and got started in the mid-morning on Tuesday.

To be honest, I probably should have started a bit earlier on Tuesday. But I haven’t been sleeping well lately (that tends to happen fairly often, actually), so it took me a little while to find the energy to get up and moving.

I started painting in the bathroom. I was able to get most of it done by about 2, but then I had to take a break of about two hours because of an eye appointment. I finished up when I got home. I took another break for supper, which gave the paint enough time to dry. All that was left to do at that point was fix any spots that were missed.

At the end of the day, I was quite happy with the results. Check it out:

See the difference? I like the grey walls so much better than the pink-ish beige ones. It’s the same colour I’ve chosen to use in other areas of my condo; it’s a really nice neutral, so I think it’ll be a great base for what I want to do in terms of decorating.

There’s still a lot of updating I want to do in the bathroom. New bathtub, new shower surround, new mirror…. I want to do most of it myself, too, so I may post some more pictures of my progress at other times.

Anyway, moving on. Wednesday was spent painting my bedroom, which is quite a bit bigger than my bathroom. Luckily I had some help with that, so it didn’t take as long as it could have. The bedroom photos didn’t come out quite so well, but here they are:

I love the way the teal makes everything pop so much more than the pink-ish beige. This room isn’t going to need as much updating as the bathroom will, but there is still some decorating I want to do.

I have to admit that, by Thursday, I was getting pretty tired. I did some painting — the small hallway space between my kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom — but not a whole lot.

Then, Thursday evening, my brother’s dog came. She was very excited to see me, but do you know who she was more excited to see?

My rabbit, Cookie.

Now, my brother’s dog has been to my condo before, but she’s only visited once since I took in Cookie. Since the dog had eventually settled down the day she had met Cookie, we all figured she’d be okay after a day or so spent at my place.

Well, that wasn’t quite the case. The dog wanted to play with Cookie, who had no desire to play with her.Don’t get me wrong, Cookie wasn’t exactly stressed or afraid. It’s just that the dog was a little too enthusiastic for Cookie’s taste.

So, since Cookie wouldn’t come out to play, the dog kept trying to go to her. Which meant that I had my hands full trying to keep a basset hound out of a rabbit’s pen.

The dog did eventually settle down on Sunday evening, though, so I was able to get some relaxation in. And that gives me hope that the next time I dog-sit for my brother, it won’t take her as long to accept that Cookie doesn’t want to play.

And that’s where my week went. I had almost no time to read, and I never got the chance to work on my writing. I’ve been trying to make up for that this week, though, so I should be able to get back on track in terms of posts.

Also, since I’ve gotten started on the changes I want to make in my condo, I should have some decorating updates to share with you occasionally. Probably not very often, to be honest, but there should be something every once in a while.

How about you? Have you ever taken time off work in the hopes of getting something done, only to find yourself too busy to actually do it?