Vacation

I'm officially on vacation.

Someone said "Boy, you sure seem to be on vacation alot."

I guess I get quite a bit of vacation.  I think in past years I may have even lost some due to the cap.  I was usually just in the habit of taking a day or two here, a day or two there.  I had attempted to use vacation strategically placed near holidays to try to avoid working more 5-day weeks than I had to.

This year I've had more full-week vacations.  One last month while I helped out at day camp and now another one now.  That still leaves me two weeks left.  I'll take my usual week in early December and I'll take a few days here and there or carry some over.  They've delayed reviews a quarter, which means they'll delay annual increases a quarter.  (See how they did that?  We were all cheering not having to have SMART Goals and Annual Reviews done during Busy Season, but I knew there was a catch.  I wonder if that will also delay the yearly award of vacation days or not.)

I haven't quite figured out what to make of vacation.  For me, I am running non-stop during the regular year, so to me vacation means slowing down.  I didn't take too many while I was single because I had no reason to - life was simpler than.  I mostly worked from home, and even after we had an office, I'd still sit on my patio many nights and work from there.  (My neighbors thought I must be a writer.)

But Lori, being at home with the kids is the job, so there's no such thing as slowing down or taking it easy.  So, for Lori, vacation means getting out and doing stuff.  Somewhere that isn't home.  That typically means, though, pushing hard - being on the go, eating out, lots of walking and probably lots of driving as well, unless we go somewhere where we're within walking distance of the attractions, like Victoria.

So this week, Lori's got it all planned out.  I believe there's even a fair weather schedule and a rainy day schedule for backup.  It should mean lots of exercise, trying out some new restaurants, lots of photos and some good recommendations to come back on here and post about.