I flew to Denver Saturday after my run, and I’m staying until Monday night. I’m gorging myself on my mother’s unending supply of Laffy Taffy, watching “The Sound of Music” with my nephew and watching my dad play freecell on the laptop they keep in the kitchen.

I was trying to determine how many actual vacation days I had taken this year, and I think this may be the first full weekday off that I’ve taken. I know I’ve taken off entire weekends, but I think I’ve considered myself “at work” every weekday this year, even if I didn’t do a full day’s work here and there.

As a freelance copywriter and small business owner, I am having trouble figuring out a vacation schedule. This is actually not much of a change from my previous work life, where on more than one occasion my bosses told me I had to take days off. I’m planning on taking off June 2, which is the day after the marathon. I don’t really have any other vacation days lined up.

So when do I take off? And for how long? I can’t really imagine being out of touch EVER at this point. When I’m at home, I walk by my computer constantly to check the email. At all times I’m connected to my BlackBerry, so anyone can reach my via phone or email at any time. I don’t get a lot of weekend calls, but I do get calls and emails after hours.

I’m not alone as far as small business people go. I subscribe to a number of listservs. When I send an email to the general population of members, I get dozens and dozens of Out of Office replies. When I send an email just to the consultants, I get zero Out of Office replies. Even when consultants take days off, they never go completely off the grid.

Thus, I’m not going to be glued to my computer tomorrow. There’s still Laffy Taffy to eat and movies to watch. I’ll be back in action Tuesday morning.