So, I kind of slid off to the beach there.

I was going to do an “I’m going on vacation!” post but then I got all cocky and thought, Eh, I’ll schedule some posts and no one will know the difference. I only wrote a book review and a Wordless Wednesday post, though, and that isn’t exactly a full line-up . . . but by last Friday, I was tired and stressed and hadn’t packed anything and thought, I’m only human. Sometimes things just don’t get done.

My usual week’s worth of this and that was one of them. I figured my Instagram feed would fill in the gaps.

The Outer Banks were quieter than usual . . . almost eerily so. The beach was calm and devoid of the usual tangle of umbrellas and sweaty visitors — like me! — crowding its sand. Traffic was down; the weather was colder than usual. I didn’t get to read as much as I wanted, but I did sneak in about 150 pages of Megan Caldwell’s Vanity Fare has an interesting premise but is actually rather boring. For some reason, though, I didn’t bury it back in my beach bag — despite having Chocolates for Breakfast and a host of unread magazines with me.

Sometimes books do that, don’t they? They’re not especially awesome, yet somehow you can’t cast them off without wrapping them up yourself.

The drive from North Carolina back home to Maryland felt loooooong yesterday, and not just because I was the one behind the wheel. (Spence drove last year; I volunteered my services.) Heading into vacation, we always feel so buoyant and optimistic and excited. What will we do? See? Eat? But coming home, well . . . eh. Instead of long, lazy days stretching out before us, we’re faced with mountains of laundry and bills to write and a stack of junk mail and about 60 billion emails you’d prefer to delete in bulk, but maybe there’s some shred of personal correspondence in there. You know?

So that’s where I am: Laundry and Email Mountain, set adrift in a sea of work, moving and wedding planning in the dog days of summer. Do I sound bummed? I am, a little . . . mostly because the trip went so fast and we don’t have another one on the books until our mini-moon in November (save a trip to see family in August). But as things heat up, literally and metaphorically, I want to make plans to sneak away on day trips to relax, take photos and explore our area more.

Because if there’s one thing I do appreciate after vacation, it’s getting back on familiar territory. Back where, you know, everybody knows your name.

Exploding inbox and all.