Writer’s Block from May 26, 2010:

What gadgets do you travel with when you’re going on a relaxing vacation? Do the gadgets you choose to bring tend to help you relax or keep you so plugged in that it’s hard to unwind?

For longer vacations, I do insist on taking my phone, my laptop, my mp3 player, my Kindle and my camera. So that’s five electronic items, but since they don’t tend to wind me up when I’m not on vacation, they don’t wind me up while I’m on vacation either.

In fact, while I want them handy, I tend to use all of them except the camera (and sometimes the Kindle) less often when I’m on vacation. I might only log into the Internet every other day and, since I travel alone, I’m likely not going to use my phone quite as much.

I just don’t want to not have them around.

This being said, when I went to North Carolina this past weekend, I only took my camera and my phone. I logged in twice using my mother’s computer but otherwise didn’t miss my gadgets at all. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a good thing.