Brain Vacation

"I abhor the dull routine of existence." - Arthur Conan Doyle via Sherlock Holmes. Or vice versa. I can't figure out the right way to quote this.

Okay let's be blunt here. We live in trying times, We live in tumultuous times. We live in pretty damn tough times. I guess what I'm trying to say is......

These times suck.

Boy do they suck. They suck so bad they even suck at being sucky. It's just one big ball of suck and then when you get to the chewy center there's a bigger burst of suck. But what can you do? You can march, you can scream, you can tweet in frustration but you also need to practice self-care. The ideal way would be meditation, yoga or a nice vacation. But sometimes you can't afford or get to those things immediately, so do what I do.
.
Take a mental vacation.

You see there are times when I hate everything in the world and everyone in the world (except you dear reader, you're perfection) and I just need to get away and do something different. It's in the times of the most stress (which is pretty much every day) where I need to go elsewhere and so I daydream. I call these my "brain vacations".

I'm a big proponent of daydreams. I consider them necessary, like food, shelter, water and reruns of Absolutely Fabulous. And I have some AWESOME ones. I do things in my daydreams that you  wouldn't be able to do on a real vacation. Unless of course you're going to a place where they specialize in that sort of thing...

Oh Ricardo Montalban - what I would give to hear your awesomely sexy voice talk about car leather once more. Sadly though, that won't happen. Even more sad is the fact that Fantasy Island doesn't exist. Luckily though, I have one hell of an imagination.

Here are some of the things that I have done during these mental vacations:

• Solved a mystery with Sherlock Holmes
• Solved a mystery with Sam Spade
• Hunted vampires in London (a personal favorite of mine)
• Beat up The Punisher
• Flew on the airship from Final Fantasy 3/6 (also petted a moogle)
• Had the de rigueur rock star fantasy - except I suddenly no longer sound like Mary Poppins 
• Became a pirate captain (who ironically never stole or killed anybody)
• Had perfect eyebrows

And if you make fun of that last one, shut up, I'm a girl. It will always be my dream.

Do I think they're stupid? Yes. Will they every happen? No - unless a certain Mr. Roarke (ahem) decides to suddenly come into existence and return my calls. But the thing is they help me cope. In a time when all the news is bad, and you wake up, go to work, come home just to do it all over again, it's nice to have a little adventure. Even if it is imaginary.

So where do you want to go on your next  brain vacation? I hear there's open bookings...