Sesshin: The ultimate STAYcation (part 1: why would you do THAT?)

So, some people go to Florida for Spring Break, others visit family. Me? I'm choosing to stay local. And I mean extremely local, like, I'm not just staying in my own state or even in my own town, I'm staying in THE EXACT SAME PLACE, for seven days straight. And I don't even mean the same place like some destination, I mean, literally, the exact same place, like really, I'm not gonna move from one spot for seven days straight.
Okay okay okay, I will be moving from that spot; I'm just being a little spry here but still, I have signed up for sesshin and that means that I have chosen to attempt to meditate, all day long, for seven days in a row.
The thought of this kinda makes me want to go to Target.
But I'm not, I'm going to the zen center, all day long (roughly 5AM to 9PM) for the next seven days. I'll talk more about what I think I'm going to be doing during sesshin but first I want to talk about why I'm doing it because really, it's not something I ever would have expected myself to do.

I'm doing this sesshin because I think that if I do, it will help me to be more calm, more aware of what I am doing while I am doing it, and less attached to things happening one way or another...more observant than judgmental of this life, of others, and eventually, of myself.
Here's why I think this is going to happen. By way of the Calfornia State Budget Crisis (and SFUSD's all inclusive religious observance days), I have had many a Friday off during the past three months. On these Fridays, I have spent my mornings at the zen center. I've sat both sessions of zazen, attended service, and done soji. I've then done the same thing the following day (I agreed to attend the full Staurday morning schedule as part of my commitment to the Practice Period). So, basically, I've had a full morning of meditation, for two days in a row, about 3 or 4 times this Winter.
I have noticed that on the Mondays following these two days of back-to-back meditation, I have been more patient with the kids, seen their 'misbehaviors' as expressions of genuine need rather than manipulation, and have been more willing to "let go" of how I thought my lessons were going to go, and responded instead to the kids' experience with it rather than criticizing myself for designing/ teaching a "bad lesson."
Now, who knows, maybe it was the days off of work that gave me this patience, this clarity, this compassion for the kids or maybe it was just more time at the zen center, away from my work. But I don't believe it's just that. I really do feel like it's an accumulation, a deepening, a coming-in-to-practice that only happens through extended and continuous engagement. The only thing I can compare it to is when I attended surf camp in Australia. Because the water is so warm there, you're in it, learning, from 7AM to 4PM. You just have about a million more opportunities to learn and, as you learn each thing, you get another opportunity to learn, that is now informed by the thing you just learned. In the first two days of surf camp, my skills skyrocketed and I knew more than I had learned over the past five years of surfing (for an hour and a half on the occassional weekend).
Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not expecting this to be some sort of plateau, some sort of arrival or milestone. I know life doesn't work like that- it's not like having intensive periods of meditation gets you into a state of permanent calm. All I'm saying is that I have noticed that when I spend two mornings in a row at the zen center, I seem to be more patient, more aware, less tied up, and more likely to laugh than to yell when things go other than I had planned.
I guess I think that seven days in a row might have a similar effect, so I'm willing to try it. Also, the days coincided perfectly with Spring Break at my school so I thought that I really could be present, leave my thoughts behind, because I wouldn't have a class of third graders to worry about.
I'm also aware that it's likely that because I'm ostensibly going to be meditating all day long, I probably am going to experience my thoughts, my fears, stuff that has been lurking around, waiting for me to finally allow it to surface. That part scares me more than having to sit there all day long- the thought of crying uncontrollably around a bunch of other people but, I don't really have a choice in the matter. I'll either bawl quietly or bow to the person next to me, tiptoe out of the zendo, and bawl someplace else in the zen center.