Vacation at Hotel Santayana - Day 1

Greetings world,

I am never sure what to think about vacations. When I was young, vacations meant that we pack everything we could and then listen to my family complain about things. Ok, it wasn't exactly like that the entire time, but I felt that by the end of the vacation I wanted everything but to be on vacation anymore. Even later, I found vacations to be filled with too many activities (snorkeling, hiking, surfing, going here and there, etc.). Too much stuff to do and very little time to actually rest! But more recently I have had the opportunities to be on vacations where I actually got lots of opportunity to sleep. I have discovered that my favorite activity to do on a vacation is sleep. Why? Because I never get enough of it.

Currently, I have one week of vacation, and I have made it a point to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. I am staying at the Santayana's residence in Vienna and it has been a treat!

Here is what I did today:

1) I slept for 11.5 hours last night

• I went to bed at around 12:30am
  
• I was woken up by my boss at around 9am, but then fell back asleep
• When I woke up I felt like I was a completely new man. I also felt a little dizzy.

2) I woke up and had coffee, and then started working on my Master's papers

• Nothing beats having coffee first thing in the morning, er, afternoon.
• Tita Nel started making lunch and it smelled amazing.
  
• I love writing about Theology, but I hate having to set aside time. It's one of the difficulties of my life, trying to fit in time to do things. I know that everyone has the same hours in a day, but don't you ever wish you had like 3 extra hours?

3) I went running

• I was energized off the coffee and feeling good. Oh yeah.
• I love running, also something that I have had a hard time scheduling in my life recently
• I pumped some good tunes through my Ipod (Beach Boys, Black-eyed Peas, Jason Mraz)
• I though of the delicious lunch that was awaiting me

4) Had lunch and then started baking an apple pie

• Lunch was fantabulous. Shrimp pasta with basil and oregano with a Rucola salad. Life is good.
• I made an apple pie. I love baking and cooking. To me that is therapy. Some people like painting, and some like shopping. Me, I like cooking and baking.

5) I went to Mass, Confession, and Adoration

• Could my day get any better? Three pillars of my spiritual life. Getting to go to Mass, confess my sins, and then sit with the Lord. What more could I ask for?

6) Met up with my lovely girlfriend and some friends for dinner.

• After adoration we met up at Stephansplatz in downtown Vienna. We headed to a restaurant called Fresco Grill. It is like a Qdoba or Chipotle. It made me miss the USA. I even had a Dr. Pepper (which is difficult to find here in Europe). The burrito I had was excellent, and I'll probably be working it off for the next week.
  
• After dinner we venture the cold weather in hopes to reach this Austrian restaurant for beer, however the public transportation was having technical problems and we settled for TGI Friday's instead. I had the Oreo Madness and a hot chocolate. Like I said again - Life is good.
• From Friday's we walked back to Stephansplatz and headed home. Cay fell asleep in the car. It was cute.

It was an extremely productive day despite me waking up at noon. What is the moral of the story? Don't wake up until noon everyday. No I am kidding.

But seriously, when you have the opportunity to get lots of sleep. Do it. You will be so much more productive. I think.