When You Can’t Travel - How to Handle A Weekend of “Down Time” from an Ever-Moving Individual

LDPR's Lorianne Lacey gets creative when her "on-the-go" life is suddenly paused.

I’ll admit it. I have a case of S-P-A – stay-put anxiety. It’s times like the recent “hunker down” orders during the anticipation of Hurricane Irene that reinforces why I chose to live in such a bustling, non-stop city and promote travel for a living.

If you’re like me, the threat of having the MTA suspended, shows canceled, restaurants closed, and losing electricity can give you almost as much anxiety as a hurricane itself. It’s Newton’s Law: An object that is in motion will not change its velocity unless an unbalanced force acts upon it. Irene, for many of us – you were that unbalanced act!

Here are tips from an ever-in-motion individual for handling a case of S-P-A:

• Charge all devices! That Netflix DVD that’s been sitting on your coffee table for the past few weeks suddenly gets incredibly more appealing.
• Break out the old board games! This weekend I relived some old-fashioned fun by playing Checkers, Chess – and who knew a game of Sorry! could be so entertaining?!
• Organize, organize, organize! Tasks such as cleaning out a closet for clothes to donate or adding photos to an album are much more enticing without other 21st century distractions (and it’s great to have these off your plate when there are more exciting things to do).
• Do some creative “cooking.” What can you use from your fridge before you potentially lose power, and what can you create with your non-perishable items?
• Write letters. Yes. On paper. With a pen. Friends will smile, I guarantee it.
• Actually CALL people on the telephone. I was amazed when staying with my boyfriend’s parents how often their land line was ringing. As someone who doesn’t even have a land line anymore and uses her phone about 90 % of the time to text, it was refreshing to hear such an influx of phone conversations.
• Last but not least (and my personal favorite) – plan your next vacation. (Of course, feel free to check out www.ldpr.com for some inspirational ideas!) Sometimes when you have down time it’s nice to think about the places you’d love to go, and explore the possibilities of getting there. I thought of a few new spots to add to my personal travel list (Maldives, Portugal, and the Carolinas).
  

All in all, I consider myself very fortunate that the results of this storm were limited to my case of S-P-A. My heart goes out to all those who experienced loss and damage. I hope that you fared well this weekend and stayed as dry as possible!