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Vacation anyone?
Being employed by the same company for thirty years has many benefits, one of which is five weeks vacation a year. Toward the end of 2008 I realized I still had seven days of vacation left. By interspersing them with paid holidays and my two personal days for 2009, I was able to have eighteen consecutive days off! It sounded so cool! All that time away from the hectic pace and unpredictable problems of my job. My friends, family and co-workers were all so envious! I had never been so glad to go back to work! I spent the first day I was off running all over town dealing with my girlfriends car problems, and it never really got any better! Kids everywhere because they didn't have to go to school, me going through money at breakneck speed even though most of my Christmas shopping was done, oh, and dealing with phone calls from work even though I was on vacation. I guess I should never have given anyone my personal cell phone number! I have, over the last few years, become less and less a Christmas cheer guy. It has become a very stressful time of year emotionally as well as financially and I no longer look forward to it. Oh, I still look forward to the family aspect of it all, but we are a close family who get together once a week for breakfast anyway so we spend a great deal of time together as it is. Dealing with the kids, who were home the whole time, and their friends who spent the night a lot, working Christmas night and the following weekend on trouble calls, dealing with holiday traffic and crowds even though I wasn't shopping; all of it conspired to make me want to get wasted on New Years Eve, which I did in grand fashion, enjoying the best New Years Eve of my life. I didn't even mind the hangover! I did get in a couple of short trips with loved ones and enjoyed that, a couple of evenings with friends, which were a lot of fun, and I think, ONE day of actual rest and relaxation! The very last day I was off was Monday, Jan. 5th, and I had to deal with an existing family issue that day as well as a family emergency! I got up Tuesday bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to go to work. The battery was dead on my work truck and I had to be in Visalia in one hour! I got there a bit late and endured the most boring safety meeting I have attended(and I have attended, litreally, hundreds). Then came all the problems that popped up while I was gone that all needed to be dealt with immediately, even though they were OK the last three weeks! It is now January 16th and I am already a month behind! I need a vacation! 14 comments from 9 users
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posted by
NancyII
on Jan 20, 2009 at 11:23 AM
There's no happy medium is there? Shorter vacations? Longer weekends? The sad thing about life is that life goes on whether we're on vacation or not, I think we just notice it more when we expect leisure instead of day to day problems. posted by
adampayne
on Jan 20, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Funny!!!! Sounds like every vacation I ever took around the Christmas and New Year holidays. The best part about getting older is that one forgets all those dreadful days of old vacations as the anticipation of the new vacation takes hold.
posted by
NancyII
on Jan 20, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Maybe the trick is to plan at least half the vacation days while the kids are in school. edited..and NOT around holidays. posted by
sys_mom
on Jan 20, 2009 at 01:58 PM
I spent a few weeks in the hospital after my strokes. Not exactly vacation but I was still away from the office. Those guys I worked with had the nerve to call me at the hospital and ask me how to fix their problems. If you truly need the R&R keep the phone numbers a secret. posted by
Shwaine
on Jan 20, 2009 at 07:03 PM
You know, a great schedule is one where you have to work a little extra most days, but you get half a day off every week or every other week. This is particularly nice if you can arrange it on a non-standard day (i.e. not Monday or Friday since several places offer parts of those days off). You can run errands while kids are in school and fewer people are out and about. And since you get the time off so frequently, small errands don't queue up into a massive to-do list. Then when you do take a vacation, you can spend it relaxing or tackling big errands. posted by
witterpitters
on Jan 20, 2009 at 07:13 PM
I am now on a permanent vacation and I love it...................RETIREMENT!!!!! broke (bills all paid) but happy!!!!! I get to wake up on a Monday AM and think.............I don't have to go anywhere I don't want to go !!! hooooo yaaaaa!!!
posted by
AudreyB
on Jan 21, 2009 at 08:05 AM
Welcome to the leisure class Witters. It doesn't get any better than this! posted by
ALICEN
on Jan 21, 2009 at 08:17 AM
motopoet: When I first retired, the thing that struck me was that I did not have to do laundry on Saturday. I could do laundry on a Wednesday if I so chose. There's a freedom in retirement that I wouldn't trade for anything. And, yes, I remember being required to check voice mail on vacation while a thousand miles away to make sure there was nothing that needed my attention, my memory, something. Now I'm "free at last!" Less money, but, like WP, still paying the bills. Ever think about retiring? Maybe I should say "daydream" about it? Not all your troubles will vanish, but you'll at least have more time to deal with them. Good luck. And take a vacation already! posted by
NancyII
on Jan 21, 2009 at 08:25 AM
For a lot of years my schedule had me with days off on Sundays and Mondays and it was great. I thought that was ideal. Last Feb. I decided to hang it up and retire, at least semi. I went through stages similar to grief but sort of in reverse. First came euphoria, then calm, then a little bored, then panic, then acceptance. I still work a little job part time and take care of my ggrandson two days a week. I could never survive total retirement as I need a reason to get up and get going....something to look forward to. I've never been a hobby person, or crafty, so I need something to fill my days with. Like Witters, I do love knowing I don't HAVE to do anything I don't want to. A couple of the extra money things I had planned didn't work out so I don't have the income I thought I would have, I just scaled back on spending. Surprisingly it didn't hurt a bit. Well, not much anyway. There'll come a day when the savings for retirement runs out and when that happens, I'll just move in with the kids....LOL. Or go live in a retirement home. Mark already promised they'd find a nice one for me til my memory goes then they'll move me to a cheap one where I won't know the difference. He's such a good son. posted by
AudreyB
on Jan 21, 2009 at 08:40 AM
That Mark. He's a keeper! ;-) posted by
motopoet
on Jan 23, 2009 at 07:51 AM
I FANTASIZE about retirement! Can't go till I am 60, by which time I will have 41 years service...UGH! posted by
Shwaine
on Jan 23, 2009 at 11:22 PM
I doubt retirement is all it's cracked up to be. After all, it would seem from the blog traffic this week that some retired people have nothing better to do than argue online all day. posted by
vanityfair
on Jan 23, 2009 at 11:26 PM
Lol. posted by
NancyII
on Jan 24, 2009 at 07:18 AM
Shwain..that, and the weather. The nice thing about retirement is that we CAN choose how we spend our time.
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