Away too long

This is strange. Very strange. I am on Day 13 without poker. Somewhere a commercial looms … “side effects include irritability, mood swings and possibly death.”
It’s not that I do not want to play. I do. Things just are not working out. The thing I am most interested in is … what has this break done to my game?
As I have stated before, I am far from a professional, far from the best player in my home game. I play as much as possible, and over the previous 13-day period before my current hiatus, I played six times. I was down for that time period, both in terms of cash and spirit.
I had talked about, wrote about, taking some time off. Never did I think it would be for this long. Further complications have come from work assignments and coaching little league baseball. This weekend, Easter has wiped out any chance of playing.
So, I think I could be looking at more than 20 days off before I play again. Holy moly!
I can’t imagine Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey or even Joseph Hachem taking so much time off. (Of course, if they do, they can afford to!) Then again, I can’t imagine playing for 35 days at the World Series of Poker with little or no break.
But, I am no Negreanu, Ivey or Hachem. I do want to improve my game, and I really believe the time away will help. I can’t play much worse than I was before.
Looking back through my ledger, I can see the last few weeks of action were … well, pitiful. There’s only one way to go … yeah, I know the cliché is up, but I meant to the card room! Where ever it may be.