| "I never go on vacation," said a Manhattan | | | | one that goes on and on for that long ago and |
| real estate agent. "And when I do, I have my | | | | faraway interlude of two weeks.What's an |
| computer, my Palm, my e-mail and my cell | | | | exhausted and tense person to do? Here's our |
| phone with me at all times."It seems that our | | | | humble but functional answer. Most years we |
| tech toys have become the adult equivalent of | | | | take long weekends, with only an occasional |
| an umbilical cord. So how can we live | | | | year in which we indulge in a flagrant week |
| without them?And what about now, when, as a | | | | or two away from our day-to-day |
| good citizen, who also doesn't want to get | | | | entanglements. We find the possibility of |
| arrested, you at least have to endure your | | | | frequent breaks inviting, and we don't get |
| plane trip without their nourishment and | | | | taken out of our lives the way the extended |
| comfort? Let's do a checklist of tech tonics | | | | vacations of yore used to separate us from |
| that can cause us to experience separation | | | | our usual doings. We also find that most of |
| anxiety.Your laptop. No more making the | | | | the world is within reach during these |
| flight a window to catch up with your work or | | | | three-day to five-day intervals.Of course, if |
| idle the time away with a video game. Even | | | | you're thinking of heading to Australia or |
| if you're reunited with the high-tech marvel | | | | the Far East, you may be doing little more |
| after the flight, what if you're on a | | | | than making a U-turn, so better reserve those |
| tropical island, marooned on the coconut | | | | destinations for the rare times when you dare |
| garden without a high-speed Internet | | | | a week or - dare we even mention the words? - |
| connection?Your cell phone. No more last | | | | two or even three weeks?Then again, you can |
| minute chats before takeoff or immediate | | | | always decide to move to a vacation |
| reconnection on landing. How bereft can life | | | | destination forever, especially when you |
| get?Your Palm or Blackberry. Can't take | | | | compare the length of the idylls in other |
| either of those on board either, and, as you | | | | parts of what we loosely refer to as the |
| know, out of phone numbers and email | | | | civilized world.According to the Organization |
| addresses, out of business, worse yet, cut | | | | for Economic Cooperation and Development, as |
| off from your entire social life, at least, | | | | of 2004, in the US full-time employees have |
| for the seemingly eternal length of the | | | | 3.9 holiday and vacation weeks off a year, |
| flight.Your MP3 player. No, no, anything but | | | | while in the UK they have 6.6 weeks, in |
| that! How will your soul survive the | | | | France 7, and in Italy 7.9.But do you really |
| deafening silence?And the reluctance to | | | | want to part with the good, young USA for an |
| separate from our tech tools isn't the only | | | | extended or everlasting break? For most of us |
| reason many Americans are reluctant to take | | | | the thought remains an occasion for |
| the vacations they once flew out of their | | | | separation anxiety that we simply can't |
| office chairs for. Most Americans also fret, | | | | endure.Tom Attea, humorist and creator of |
| in these days when what used to be called | | | | NewsLaugh.com, has had six shows produced |
| workaholic hours now seem more like half | | | | Off-Broadway. Critics have called his |
| days, that the employer will use the occasion | | | | writing "delightfully funny," "witty," with |
| to replace you with somebody who has shown | | | | "great humor and ebullience" and "good, |
| promise of never needing something as | | | | genuine laughs. |
| irresponsible as a vacation, at least, not | | | | |