I’m back to work after not quite 2 weeks. I did get some work done over the holidays, but mostly took time off. I’d planned to have a lighter schedule over Christmas and New Year’s, but wasn’t anticipating the fact that Jai and I would get sick with an awful cold right before Christmas. This is one of the nastiest I’ve had, for the sheer fact that it stayed at the same intensity level and did not let up for these past few weeks. Since most people in my industry were out of the office for the holidays anyway, I shrugged my shoulders and decided to let my poor exhausted body recover. I’ve pretty much just been quarantined in the house watching Netflix between coughing fits.

While I was sad to have all of my holiday plans go completely down the toilet, in a strange way I think I needed some quite time to recoup and regroup. Taking this much time off is usually unthinkable for me, so I almost think my body was forcing me to slow down a bit. I worked really hard last year to make up for lost time – the mobility problems I have recovered from really limited my life and career, so for me 2013 was an important year for reclaiming what had been lost and getting back to where I was. I also had a lot of very significant personal milestones, like coping with the 10th anniversary of my mom’s death, finishing a decade of renovations, and other things. I knew 2013 would be a very challenging year, but it was a little like climbing a mountain, because I have a lot of hard-won victories to show for it. In 2014 I want to keep this momentum going, but also enjoy what I’ve worked for and take more time out to care for my health and well-being. I can’t run myself into the ground forever and I think my hard work paid off last year, so I need to scale back my insane hours while I can. (Ironically, Britney’s “Work” is playing while I write this!)

Happy New Year, everybody!!