"Day"cation

Frequent readers of Office Envy know that we almost always write as we.
But today I (I!) really need to break out and write as one...because this day is happening to just this one person, and because if the term day-cation turns into anything I (I!) want credit for it!

Today, I am taking a day-cation - more intuitively but less rhymingly called a "desk-cation" since I am working but on a day long vacation from my desk.

Here's how my day-cation came about.
Today had all the underpinnings of a work day headed for disaster.
The last two days I was traveling for business and unable to check the boxes off the to-do list like I normally would. Today I was supposed to be in a conference from 9-5, so I woke up at 6:30 to check some boxes before the work day began.

But as I frantically rifled through my bag for a fourth time it began to sink in that I had really lost the key fob I need to log into any of my work applications.

The plan was falling apart before my eyes. I wouldn't be able to get into the building without that key fob. Wouldn't be able to log into my computer from anywhere else either. How could I bang out that hour of work I was planning to accomplish before the conference started? The tech folk at the office don't arrive until 9 am - and they are the only ones (closer than their counter parts in India) who can do anything about this missing key fob issue.

Now- this author has long believed that everything happens for a reason (and, incidentally, that "everything ends up OK, if things aren't OK, it isn't the end"), and now, 6 hours after this day began in infamy and wound its way through tears and the West Village (looking for the damn key fob) I am realizing that everything really does happen for a reason because I have stumbled upon a work-life changing concept: a "Day-cation".

Once the tech team had arranged for a replacement fobs and the building security team ushered me in, rather than heading to the usual corner cubicle -- where, incidentally, I couldn't stay for long because the rest of my team would be there asking why I wasn't at the conference-- I bee-lined for a "phone room" and have holed up in there for the last solid 4 hours being blissfully productive, checking off boxes and ticking off to-dos and feeling generally cozy (my cup of tea helps with that) and effective (this morning's coffee helped with that).

And so I propose the following thesis to all those out there who are feeling a nagging case of a horrible day at work descending: if you can't take a vacation, take a day-cation, and switch up the scenery. My day-cation has left me feeling refreshed and ready to face my desk again with dignity (tomorrow, that is).