A Slippery Slope

The vacation started exactly as intended:

Yuki's day began at dawn with an early morning run. Afterwards, it was a shower, followed by a nutritious breakfast, and then... Well, whatever productive tasks she could busy herself with. She'd clean, she'd answer emails, she'd run errands.

Dinner. Perhaps some light reading. Then going to bed at a reasonable hour. Rince and repeat.

This played out for the first few days, but it wasn't long before Yuki ran into a problem: There were only so many "productive" tasks to do outside of work. And so... So many hours in the day, given how early she awoke.

How many times could she clean her house? How many runs before she gave in to fatigue? How many times could she refresh her email, waiting for some kind of work?

Eventually, Yuki gave the relaxation tape given to her a try.

It was nonsense, mostly. Calming affirmations, set against a babbling creek and birdsong. Urging Yuki to... Let go, to breathe, to drop one stressful habit. Then another, and another.

It was annoying to listen to. Little more than background noise as she worked. But as time went by, and the message began to set in, Yuki began to... Entertain it. Somewhat. She'd try ONE relaxing thing that she didn't normally.

She slept in. Until 7:30. How rebellious. But she felt... Rather nice! But by that hour, the city traffic was heavy. Kids went to school, people went to work, interfering with her morning run. So she'd... Skip it. She could afford that once or twice, surely.

By week two, she was sleeping until 8:30, 9 o'clock. Without her runs, she was in no hurry to shower or get dressed. When she eventually did, she'd dress comfortably! Simple tank tops, shorts or sweatpants. Casual clothes that her coworkers would struggle to imagine her wearing.

After finishing her books, Yuki decided to watch a film adaptation of one of her favorite stories... And that lead to an interest in movies in general. She'd rarely even watch TV, much less waste hours watching movies! Romance, action, sci-fi, horror. She'd missed so much!

She started going to bed later, and of course, what's a movie without some snacks?

Whenever Yuki found herself doubting her habits, the relaxation tape provided encouragement: Why did she need to follow her stressful schedule so rigorously? Why not explore new interests? Why not let her self-imposed responsibilities lapse, if only to see what happens?

For the first time in her life, Yuki Yoshida was... Relaxed. Comfortable. Lazy. And she still had so much vacation left to enjoy!