Feeling Peaceful

There’s no better feeling than when you finish a huge project. Mine this week was a research paper for school – something that I spent fourteen hours straight on, followed by another four hours today. It’s not perfect, but I worked so hard on it. The topic is something that interests me, which makes the grueling research significantly more bearable. Now that it’s complete, I’m relaxing in bed beneath the dim, warm lighting of the stringed bulbs that I bought to hang in the room. It smells like lavender essential oils in here from the diffuser on my nightstand, and there’s some of my favorite piano pieces playing in the background. I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is probably why I’m an introvert. I love spending peaceful evenings in, with comfortable pants and a cup of warm tea. People are cool, sometimes, but there’s really not much that I’d prefer to this – just time with my own thoughts.

I’ve done a lot of cleaning and organizing in here this week, when I’ve had the time. Getting rid of some of my old clothes wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be – and honestly I could probably get rid of a bit more. I’m looking for some good books, audiobooks, or podcasts on minimalism. There’s so many out there, I don’t really know where to start. It seems that minimalizing is something that I need to work on the most, currently. I want to start focusing more on experiences, not things.

That being said, I finally worked up the nerve to book a hotel for a short little getaway in August. This is something I’ve wanted to do for ages, since I never take vacations. I have plenty of PTO stockpiled away for a vacation or a rainy day that would never come between when I was hired in 2014 and now. Here’s hoping no rainy days do come, since I’m taking five days off to go to Eureka Springs. I’m planning on kayaking there, as well as visiting the tiger sanctuary. The hotel is beautiful – it’s a treehouse! It’s surrounded by greenery on all sides, and even comes equipped with a jacuzzi tub. Excited is an understatement, and I’m sure I’ll start counting down the days soon.