New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston

Quick recap: I hadn’t taken a real vacation in nine years (awful, I know) when I received an invitation to a family event in Nashua, New Hampshire. In researching the travel, it turned out the best deal was to fly to Boston’s Logan airport and take a shuttle to Nashua. Well, if I’m gonna head that way, I might as well leave a couple of days early and see Boston for the first time.

Perfect vacation. Just miss three days of work and the trip lasted five days. Not too long to fall behind. Not too short that I feel rushed. Discover a new city while catching up with family I hadn’t seen in years.

The bar that was the inspiration for the TV show Cheers

I debated whether to take my laptop because I could access email on the BlackBerry. Hubby advised me to take the laptop. The Boston hotel charged a flat fee for an Internet connection for 24 hours. Nashua had free Internet.

Mom and I landed in Boston greeted with a misty rain and cooler temperatures. We caught a cab to take us to the hotel. The ride had a few tunnels. So I’d glance at my BlackBerry even though the connection broke while in the tunnels. Natural light returned. “Meryl, stop looking at your BlackBerry. Look at Boston!” Mom said.

I had been. She just caught me when I was looking down. I took the time to be aware of my surroundings and just absorb Boston into my skin and memories. I noticed the amazing buildings, old and new. The architecture captivated me that I wished I had a better eye for taking pictures so I could capture the landscapes. I knew about the rule of thirds, getting close ups and all. The photos turned out average as usual. I tried.

Anyway, one of the things that stresses me about a vacation is falling behind and playing catch up. Yes, the return home turned out to be a difficult one for about a week before my life returned to normal. It was worth it, but I’ll pass on another vacation for a little while — maybe not nine years.

How to Enjoy a Vacation without Worrying about Work from a Worrywart

1. Be aware. Take in the moment. Study your surroundings. Talk to yourself in your head. Mine went something like this: “Wow. The New England Holocaust Memorial beautifully captures the six million Jews killed with one pylon for each million. Look at all those names adorning all four sides of the pylon from top to bottom in small print. Imagine one million names in a single pylon. Notice the concentration camp names on the ground and the chambers where steam rises from the charred embers at the bottom, such an appropriate way to remember those who perished at the Nazi death camps.”
2. Take pictures. I get shy about asking friends and family to pose for pictures, but I made an effort. Unfortunately, some turned out blurry. At least, I have a nice album of my trip. I ordered prints from a photo service that lets you enter captions and it prints them on the back.
3. Write about the trip. I have been keeping a journal since 1989 to chronicle my life. When I couldn’t remember something, I can find the answer in my journal. Whenever I had the opportunity, I captured all I could.
4. Check emails. For me, it was a way to minimize the return home insanity. I deleted newsletters and responded to easy to answer emails. This lessened the pain of returning back to my regularly scheduled week.
5. Avoid too much planning. I also avoided making too many plans as I didn’t want to stress out over trying to stick to the schedule and do it all. The only official plan we had in Boston was meeting with my mom’s first cousin who lived in the area. She took us to John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, a place we couldn’t get to by walking. We also had lunch on Hanover Street, known for Italian restaurants, and dinner at a nice restaurant where we met another first cousin. Before leaving Texas, I studied Boston and the places I could walk to from my hotel. I managed to hit all the highlights in two days including Boston Common, a touch of the Freedom Trail, the inspiration for Cheers, Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall and a few other places.
6. Relax! Since I wrapped all loose ends and notified clients of my upcoming trip, I didn’t have to worry about work. Not much email came in while I was gone. Thank you, dear clients.

I didn’t see everything in Boston, but I think I did well for two days and walking most of it. What do you know? Boston University is one of the colleges on my daughter’s list. So who knows? I could become a seasonal visitor there. I’d love to visit Boston again, but I’d like to visit some other cities first that I’ve never seen like San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle.

How do you make the most of a vacation?

Travel. Love it. Hate it. I dream of going to London, Paris, Greece, Italy and other places. But then I think about all the work it takes to do overseas travel and the desire goes away… for a little while. Maybe it will be easier to do overseas travel when my life calms down — after the kids are grown. So I’m in no hurry.

Going nine years without going someplace new is a bit much. (The last few trips have been to … Austin… Austin… San Antonio slash Austin… Not a big deal when you live in Texas and they were all for events, conferences and even a volleyball tournament.) It’s not that I put off travel for when a better time comes. Life worked out that way.

I do the best I can to enjoy the moment and appreciate my life every day of every year. Working in a home office makes that possible. Some days — rainy or freezing days for one — I don’t care to walk my dog. Other days I appreciate that I can do this activity and it forces me to take a break from the computer that I might not take except to exercise.

Early this year, I got an invitation to a family event in Savannah, Georgia. Well, hey, I haven’t been to Savannah (I’ve been to Atlanta) and I love these cousins. We tried to go, but the unreasonable airfare didn’t work for us. It turned out to be a good thing because I received a surprise award that same weekend.

Another invitation arrived for a family event in Nashua, NH. The cousins are not just family, but dear friends. At one point, we lived within 30 minutes of each other and got together a few times. I’ve been to Nashua, so the location didn’t excite me. After researching, I find out the best airfare meant flying into Boston and making a road trip to Nashua instead of flying straight to NH.

Boston. I’ve never been there. When I lived in Washington, DC, I managed to visit Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York. Never made it to Massachusetts.

****IDEA****

Since I have to fly to Boston, why not go a couple of days earlier and take a mini-vacation in Boston? That’s exactly what I’m doing. I did my research and managed to get a place in the North End near a lot of the action including the Freedom Trail. So I hope to squeeze it all in two days. It may be short, but it’ll be powerful to discover a spot in the U.S. that I’ve never visited and one with a rich history.

By the time this post goes live that I’ve had a grand time in Boston and I’ll be on my way to Nashua, NH. I hope I have lots to great stuff to report in the next link post. In the meantime, I hope you had a great week and you enjoy the little moments. Despite the hectic week before my trip, I took a breath and did my marching band routine to celebrate back to school week!

Here’s a funny sign fail from right here in Boston!

Brain food…

• Cold Calling and Receiving Call Backs: Cold calling works. It’s not the only option, but it works.
• TweetPsych: Creates a psychological profile of any public Twitter account and compares it to the thousands already in the database. [Link: Top 10 Exciting Things to Do on Twitter]
• Three Keys to Being a Subject Matter Expert on Twitter: Sometimes we need to be more than just aggregators.
• 10 Rules for Negotiating Contract Work: Not a fun topic, but important for freelancers. [Link: bkmacdaddy]
• How to Develop a Case Study: A good way to market B2B services.
• 14 Resources for Free Fonts and Premium Fonts: I love fonts — just not Comic Sans.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Howdy Fail: Sure hope this sign wasn’t found in Texas, y’all.
• Comprehensive Gaming Console History Video: Geeks, prepare for memories to come flooding… they did for me.
• 15 Funny Engrish T-Shirts: Warning: A lot of cuss words.
• 10 Signs You’re in a Bad Niche: I suggest not working for peanuts especially the literal kind.
• Netflix Origami: Now you know what to do with the Netflix flaps besides throw them in the recycle bin. And a Netflix fail.

What was the last new place you traveled to? Share your experience.

Those who know me well probably just fell out of their chairs seeing “vacation” in this post’s title. “Vacation” and “Meryl” don’t go together. I know. That’s pitiful, not a thing to brag about. Anyway, for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been getting harsh reminders why I don’t like to travel often. The packing, the preparation, the clients. The stress of ensuring I have what I need and I make it to the airport on time without being too early.

As organized and proactive as I am, I run into bumps as the trip nears. It gives me an excuse to write a blog post before I go and check off another item on my list of things to do before I step outside the great state of Texas.

• Notify clients at least one week before departure. The tricky part is which clients to notify. I’m not active with all of my clients at all times. On the other hand, it’s an excuse to touch base with the ones you haven’t talked to in a while.
• Delete emails liberally. For the past two weeks, I deleted a lot of email newsletters and regular messages without reading them. I needed to finish client work first. Plus, I don’t want to leave town with a bunch of unread email messages. I’ll have enough waiting for me. Oh, I’ll be checking emails while I’m out, but it helps to minimize email.
• Move up tasks due dates. Rather than rushing to do everything at the last minute, move it up and spread them out.
• Limit appointments and commitments. This depends on how much advance notice you have before vacation. But reschedule whatever appointments you can so you have one less thing on your mind.
• Start packing early. A few days before, I took out the stuff I would need to take that I would not be using until the trip. The things I still use, I put them out together.
• Remember you can buy what you forget. OK, this may be hard to do when you go camping. At least, it’s something to ease your mind knowing this. Although I would not want to go shopping for a dress on my trip as that’s time consuming and expensive.
• Schedule posts and tweets. I posted couple of tweets and spread them out. I’ll have fewer tweets, but at least my presence will be there.  You know what, it’s OK to forget this one altogether. I almost didn’t write this post, but I felt I needed to.

I was so rushed and determined to do a post that I should’ve looked up 10 Tasks to Prepare for Time off. Ah well… Like fellow Texan Robert says, you gotta expect the unexpected, eh? OK, I’ve run out of time and must dash. Besides, I want to hear from you. Your turn.

What do you do to prepare for vacation?

So many conferences, so little travel budget. How do you decide? The last few conferences I’ve attended are sxsw interactive and Texas PTA’s, both in Austin, of course. (The only place I’ve been go outside of the Dallas / Fort Worth area is Austin in almost 10 years. Sad, I know.) Flying or driving to Austin is cheap. My local PTA took care of the costs and I shared a hotel room.

With sxsw, I also shared a room with Christine Tremoulet one year and my husband and our unborn youngest child went the following year.

I almost went to a writer’s conference in Oklahoma City, which also has cheap flights and a great conference price. Plus, several people I know are speaking and it would be nice to meet them in person. But I opted not to due to crowded schedule.

It’s not that I’m cheap. Because of my deafness, I don’t quite get the full benefit of a conference especially one that’s full of panels that converse with the audience. It’s like watching a tennis match that happens all around you. This approach quickly turns well rested eyes into tired ones. I came this close to going to sxsw this year, but backed off when I saw how much attendance grew since my last visit in 2003.

So then… how do you decide which conference to attend with overwhelming options?

klatsch n. “A casual social gathering, usually for conversation.” Source: The Free Dictionary AKA a meryl.net blog post centered on a discussion topic.

Michael is my much older brother. I’m such a nice little sister, ain’t I?

Anyway, we have about four more weeks before school begins. I love the Pajama Diaries (I’d so buy the book if it existed. Jill Kaplan (which happens to be my maiden name) is a mom who works in a home office as a freelance designer.

I can relate to many of the strips especially this one. We didn’t put our younger two kids into programs all summer, just the first month. So it’s been an adventure having them home. Though I have the advantage of being able to turn off my cochlear implant for instant silence, I prefer the silence with the cochlear implant on plus it lets me listen for doorbells and potential crying.

• Travel Etiquette: I enjoy reading about different culture rules and norms. Now if I could travel and put them to use… One fact I learned: when offering or taking a business card from an Asian (I’ve heard this from someone from Korea, China and Thailand), use both hands not one.
• Pump up your Twitter background with clickablenow: You’ll need to add a plugin or take some steps with your browser to add the clickable links. I tested it with Chrome and Firefox. Thanks to @mashable for mentioning the service and @clickablenow for the free service.
• Domparison: Comparing domain name prices.
• 25 Book Blogs: I always tell authors to seek out blogs that cover their topics. This will get you started. Blogcritics also reviews many different topics of books.
• UK government gets guide to Twitter: Here’s the Cabinet Office blog entry with the links to the guide’s various versions.
• Business.Gov: A Recommended Resource For Future And Current Small Business Owners

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Manuals Online: Can’t find your manual? The User Manual Site may have it — it has 300,000+ manuals for over 5000 brands. You can always go to the manufacturer’s web site for manuals, too.
• 50 Greatest Trailers of All Time: Not captioned, of course.
• Computer hardware poster: One poster my daughter won’t have on her wall
• There, I Fixed It: In honor of my brother who thinks he can fix anything.

• The cost of writing fiction versus nonfiction
• Three things to consider when deciding how long your posts should be
• 100 useful web tools for writers
• Slate even has a reading list.
• Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs
• 100 Sites Entrepreneurs Should Visit
• 20+ free press distribution sites
• 16 great personal finance resources and blogs. If you know of good ones from a business POV, please comment. These are hard to find (not interested in stocks).

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Cell phones and popcorn… what happens? Watch the video.
• Pipl: Search for folks by name and location. OK, maybe it’s not so fun when you think about big brother… but people will find other ways if it weren’t for this site.
• Budget Travel: Real deals sorted by region and other categories like “girlfriend getaways.” Just makes me want to go somewhere!

• Liz Strauss on creating a successful blog with community. Long transcript (we deafies thank you), but great conversation. You can download the PDF for reading a bit at a time.
• Fail frequently. Edison didn’t fail 1000 times, he found 1000 steps to creating the light bulb. Also, think about how you deal with mistakes.
• Making Headlines: This takes time, but it will pay off.
• Online Writing: How one teacher uses social media in teaching a writing class.

And for fun because you’re allowed

• Bored people find x-ray machine
• Toddler sings The Beatles’ “Hey, Jude” [Link: Buzz Bishop]
• Traveling to a subway city? Hop to HopStop to get all the bus and subway guides. Washington, DC’s metro system is amazing — complete with information visualization through its maps. New York City? It only confused me. I’m underground, how am I supposed to know which way is north?

Geeky couple’s rings [Link: Chris Kieff] looks almost obscene. Chris and I were joking in Twitter. He said, “… I think it would be a little awkard to have them plugged together… God what a geek I am to think that!”

I replied, “Yeah, just amazing hooking ‘em up and trying to walk together side-by-side… ohhh, carpal tunnel!”

Wow. Not often I get to write February 29. Glad it falls on a Friday so I can use it in my links title.

• Speaking of February 29, here is a link to Google’s leap year research results page.
• Deciphering Food Expiration Dates: I’m somewhat of a freak about germs (nothing like Monk), so I keep an eye on expiration dates. But they can confuse.
• Baby Sign Game: Adorable game where you see four pictures of the baby signing a word — select the sign that represents the word shown.
• How to get paid to travel with writing: Wish I had the time to study up on this so I can travel when people ask me if I am going to such ‘n such conference.
• You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice, but we did posts design work that may be copying another’s design work. Its about page clearly explains that some situations are OK.
• Grokdotcom points to New Yorker’s cool 404 page. I used to have a better 404 page, but since going to WP — I haven’t been able to get it back up. The same article refers to Smashing Magazine‘s great list of 404 error pages, which I missed.
• Someone frustrate you? Follow these directions.

• Computer pranks
• Stamps all over a keyboard: Original! Colorful.
• 10+ Things to Do with Dry-Erase Markers: Don’t throw ‘em out even if the board is gone for good. Advisory: Don’t write on me! From your monitor.
• Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet
• 100 Resources for When You’re on the Move [Link, Freelance Folder]
• Geek of the Day: Geek Humor

• Replace “can’t” with “won’t”
• 15 ways to reclaim two precious hours
• Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations
• Innovation Tools contains resources for business innovation, creativity, and brainstorming.
• Library Journal reviews almost 7000 books every year including audio, video, and databases.
• Travel search engines for finding cheapest rates:
  • Farecompare
  • Kayak
  • Farecast