How I spent my summer vacation

I suppose I should apologize for letting my blog go dark during the summer, but truthfully I really can't. I'm not sorry I took the summer off. I think it was what I needed to be able to truly step away from journalism.

I started the summer with the best of intentions. I'd blog in the mornings, write fiction in the afternoon, and take the kids to the pool in the evening. I'd read the New York Times on line, listen to NPR, and finally have time to really read news magazines. But those plans quickly slipped from the rails.

I didn't blog in the morning, because I stayed up late at night reading - nothing weighty or of world importance, just fiction. I plowed through Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooter Series and loved every page. (Yes, if I had to I could discuss current events, but I preferred catching up the neighbors about gardening or kids, or sharing a joke with my husband.)

Shorts and flip flops became the uniform of the day, almost every day. When I had an interview, my children would look at me in amazement. I think they forgot I have a business wardrobe in my closet.

I planned meals and cooked them! I bought a waffle iron. I dusted off my blender and food processor. I became a regular at my neighborhood Wal-Mart.

There was a lot of laughter in my house this summer.

I encouraged my children to draw, to write, to make up stories and play. We were regulars at the local bookstores and the library. And some evenings we did make it to the pool. I started thinning out my flower beds.

In short, I did the stuff that I always said I was going to do; the little things that got pushed back weekend after weekend because there just weren't enough hours in the day.

I looked for a job, but more importantly I really, really got over the job I had. I don't miss it and I don't want to go back.

Instead I want to explore the world that doesn't revolve around journalism blogs, insider politics and constant conflict.

I started developing a communications plan - brochures, website recommendations, and informational bulletins - for my youngest daughter's school. Being creative without having to deal with the constrictions of American journalism is a wonderful thing.

I didn't realize how far I had moved on until I went to a seminar on social networking. It started with the obligatory, 'let's go around the room and introduce ourselves.' I half listened to those ahead of me and tried to figure out exactly how I was going to define myself.

I didn't want to use the 'laid off' label, at least not as a primary descriptor. I found out early on that label evoked more sympathy than I wanted or needed. I thought about 'consultant' or 'freelancer'.

In the end I said, 'I'm Jean Marie Brown and I'm a recovering journalist.'

Lately, I've dropped the 'recovering' and just say I was a journalist. It's a chapter of my life that has closed.