Everyone has that need to just get away from it all. The rich & famous run off to southern French villas, those of more modest means have to make do with what we have.
So when the world is grating on you, or when you are just desperately trying to avoid reality?
I drink. Well, not anymore due to some recent… unpleasantness. So instead I get my hands on a good book or two, maybe a couple of sodas, and I lock my self in the bathroom.
My bathroom is about 5 by 8 feet with a tub and shower talking up one wall, a toilet, and a sink with counter. There is a tile floor with a thick cotton rug laid utop it. What I do is lock the door, turn on the fan, lay on the ground in a fetal position with a towel as a pillow and another one across my legs. I then intensely read loosing all track of space and time. I will lie in there for 6 hours easily, often as long as ten or twelve hours, without leaving the room and while barely moving in it. Every time I leave a little groggy a little hungry and a little shocked at how long I have been gone.
I also read, but I lie on my stomach on my bed. I lie with my head at the foot of the bed and my feet under or on my pillows. If I don’t feel like reading, I sit at the computer, play an easy game like one-suit Spider, and listen to the same song or album over and over.
Well it’s nice you can find a retreat. Your technique may sound a bit strange to some people, but I think it’s great (and inexpensive, a real plus).
For some people it’s as easy as going to a movie, that works for me on some occasions. I have also gone to live sporting events, that works sometimes too. A road trip does the job sometimes too, not a trip to anywhere in particular, just a drive to where ever I end up going. Zoos, museums, bookstores, and libraries can do the trick for me too.
I live by myself, so I just go home: there, I can read or watch a movie or watch TV or play the piano or do some cleaning (it can be theraputic) or putz around online or do just about anything else I feel like doing.
I pick up my iPod and head out of the house. I love walking around downtown, or getting on the lightrail or streetcar and standing off to the side, losing myself in the music and the passing cityscapes.
There’s something about being present in civilization (out walking amongst the people) but unable to hear the noises going on around you, due to the sound of the music in your headphones. It’s like a movie of life with a soundtrack supplied by you.
I hide from the world by being out in the middle of it, with a wall of sound erected between me and everyone else.
Finding a thread about what you do to escape, whilst trying to escape…
Seriously, I’ll usually grab a beer (or a bottle of whiskey, depending on just how far away I want to get), and just lay there with some of my more guitar-solo-centered music on. Otherwise (if know that I have to drive soon, or something) I’ll just just read, while laying in the sun, weather permitting.
I do the same thing. No stereo now though, and I don’t like where I live, so the sleep thing isn’t quite as nice. So, at the moment I generally settle for headphones and a bit of Northland’s finest (a mysterious green leafed plant which seems to relax me) and see where that takes me.
I go into the forest and listen to the trees, the wind and the birds. It is calming to realize that the forest sounds the same as it did 500 or 1000 years ago.
When I lived at college, I found a good mechanism for hiding was wearing headphones and listening to music or playing games with the volume up and with the door locked. If you do this repeatedly, you can cultivate an image of one who does that sort of thing, so if people come to your door and you ignore them, they assume you’re just wearing headphones.
Back when I had my horse , from 1978 - 1982 , the best escape in the eorld was to go for a long trail ride . I no longer have that option , unfortunaely .
Now my big escape is writing . A good friend and I are writing a LOTR FanFic together , we have worked on it since … last July , I think . We picked up the story 3 years after the Ring Quest , addaed a few characters of our own (We are really playing loosely with it , LOL) and we are just PLAYING with it . We have a loose story line , and sorta take turns writing chapters , but there is no hard & fast rule . If one of us isn’t in the mood to write for a while , the other takes over and writes as much as they want . I can loose myself in writing in The Middle Earth Chronicals for HOURS at a time , and am often daydreaming about it even when not writing in it .
And as a big bonus , it is honing my writing skills . I do hope to be a published writer someday .
Or I like to stay home, curl up in the recliner with a good book, and a fan or a blanket, depending on where my wife’s set the thermostat.
Or play a computer game.
Or, even better: go on a hike in the woods with a camp chair, drinks, and a good book. When I’m tired, plop down the chair off the beaten path and sit and read for a while. That’s the ticket.
It does indeed. When I lived away from Georgia for a few years, I found it difficult to sleep without a ceiling fan, year round. I have recently realized it wasn’t the circulation of air as much as it was the sound, simulating the wind in the trees. Poor facsimile, but any port in a storm (and other applicable cliches).
Sleep or read. Preferably sleep if I’m feeling stressed. I get into bed, and curl up with one of my cats and the window wide open to catch the wind. Closing my eyes makes everything better.
This relies on the extremity of the escape required:
If I only need to relax after a hard day, I’ll pop a Mike’s Hard Lemonade and settle in for some web design / light coding.
If it’s a series of rough days, then I’ve been known to close my door and shut out the world as completely as possible for upwards of 12 hours.
And if the world is conspiring against me, I’m at the pits and there has been no relief, then I go backpacking or to an SCA event with the sole intent of escaping and forgetting my problems.
Another headphone escapist checking in. For something more solid, I love going for a long cycle ride or even a run. Better yet, combine the two… I find it hard to beat zooming down a road accompanied by my favourite music.
Sleep is also good… or more precisely, hanging on the ‘edge of sleep’ so my mind keeps wandering in and out of delerium. I also love the fact that no matter where you are, you can always catch a few minutes of solice in a toilet cubicle.
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