Tag Archives: vacation

Trauma…

Posted on by

Going back to work today was every bit as traumatic as I thought it was going to be… and I’m trying hard to resist the temptation to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head, and pretend that the who experience was a bad dream. That seems like a perfectly reasonable idea right up to the point where rent needs paid at the end of the month. Such is life for a cog in the machine.

While I’m bitching, I should note that my nose has been bleeding off and on since around 2:00 this afternoon. I’m officially over winter and the cold, dry weather that comes with it. You can only spend so much time sitting at your desk with the better part of a tissue jammed up your nose as a makeshift pressure dressing so you can do something other than stare at the ceiling until the bleeding stops. Fortunately, I think it’s slowed to a trickle. Hopefully I can make it through dinner without feeling like a stuck pig.

Happy Monday.

Feels like Sunday…

Posted on by

So this is the last weekday of my extended winter vacation. Since I didn’t take much of a summer vacation this year, I had plenty of days saved up and taking them sounded infinitely better than letting them disappear. Sure, I could have donated them to an allegedly worthy cause, but let’s be honest, does that sound like something I’d really do unless I was backed into a corner?

Make no mistake, when you’re use to being at your desk four or five days a week, every week, month after month, two unspoken for weeks are a real think of beauty. I had some minor concern that boredom would set in sometime around the end of week one when the mayhem and chaos of Christmas cleared, but that really wasn’t a problem. Honestly, the thought of being bored never occurred to me. Since I’ve been back here at the rental casa, I’ve done some reading, some writing, some cooking, some general running around, and caught up on a lot of quality television I’ve missed over the last few months. When any one of those things has started showing the least sign of being boring, I just change up the order and do them all again. Honestly, it’s probably a snapshot of what my life would look like as a lottery winner. Fortunately, I’ve always been able to more or less keep myself entertained. When you’re an only child as a kid, you learn the value of not relying too heavily on anyone else to make things interesting.

But yeah, today feels a lot like Sunday… or specifically that general feeling of “Eff this I don’t want to go back to work tomorrow” feeling that always seems to show up sometime during the day on Sunday. That feeling has been held blissfully at bay for the last two weeks and I wasn’t quite ready for it to show up already. Intellectually, I can accept that I’ve got to go back to work at some point… but emotionally, my inner lottery winner wants to keep this party rolling. There’s so much reading, writing, and cooking that I just haven’t gotten to yet. I guess that means I’ve got to cram a whole bunch of stuff into the next to days, because Sunday is coming on fast.

Down the shore…

Posted on by

We’re getting into the time of the year when where I really want to be is sitting under a palm tree sucking down rum drinks from little coconut shaped cups. With a house in Tennessee that’s not quite paying for itself and finally getting the costs of a cross country move into the just about paid off range, I’m grudgingly coming to accept that flying somewhere warm and tropical probably isn’t in the cards this year. And that makes me die just a little bit on the inside. I think I’m just having a hard time justifying that kind of vacation while paying someone else for the privilege of living in their house. Maybe my attitude on that will change if I still have a house in Memphis two or three years from now and on indefinitely into the future. I suppose that’s a first world problem and all, but still, I’ll miss my regularly scheduled rum punch marathon.

Since last year’s major vacation involved packing, moving, and unpacking an inordinate number of boxes I’m still determined to manage at least some time sitting on a beach somewhere. Maybe I’ll just pack it up for a long weekend and head to Atlantic City. If I’ve learned nothing else from MTV, it’s that New Jersey is full of tasty adult beverages and people in serious need of mocking. It might just be the best vacation ever.

Post holiday meh…

Posted on by

It’s officially the time of year when there’s really nothing to look forward to. I’ve burned off my mountain of annual leave and I’m sitting here looking at a calendar with way too many meetings and far too few days off marked up. There’s something bad for the soul about staring into the teeth of too many five-day work weeks in a row. Maybe it’s time to start plotting where I can sneak off to for spring break. Just because I finished off my undergrad degree the better part of two decades ago doesn’t mean I should go somewhere warm and enjoy the sights, right? Now that I think about it, it’s possible I have something to look forward to after all. Besides, Martin Luther King Day is coming up next week. That’s as good a reason for a long weekend as any.

Editorial Note: This part of a continuing series of posts previously available on a now defunct website. They are appearing on http://www.jeffreytharp.com for the first time. This post has been time stamped to correspond to its original publication date.

Moment of Clarity…

Posted on by

There are few moments in the year more disappointing than when you come back to work after new years and discover that for all the talk about new starts, peace, love, and good feelings, absolutely nothing has changed. Your work is piled just where you left it. The things that bothered you in the old year will be the things that bother you in the new one. None of the problems has been solved while you were away ignoring them.

Maybe vacations work for some people, but if you’re supposed to come back reenergized and more effective, I don’t think they work for me. Whatever restive effect my time off had on me has bled away within 20 or 30 minutes of getting to my desk and plowing through a week’s worth of email. So yeah, for me, it’s back to the grind just the same as if I’d never left at all.

All things considered, I’d have rather stayed home this morning. Then again, I also like getting paid, so here I am.

Editorial Note: This part of a continuing series of posts previously available on a now defunct website. They are appearing on http://www.jeffreytharp.com for the first time. This post has been time stamped to correspond to its original publication date.

The spirit…

Posted on by

Tis the season to be meh. Honestly, if it weren’t for the calendar in Outlook and the sparkly Rudolph blinking happily on the neighbor’s lawn, I wouldn’t have any real idea it’s less than two weeks until Christmas. I have exactly one present purchased, which means this Saturday is probably going to involve the painful ordeal of going to a mall of some sort. On the flip side, I’m ridiculously excited about being off for 9 straight days and spending a big chunk of those banging around Allegany County. I’m insanely happy that this Christmas isn’t going to involve a 16 hour drive to get anywhere. So yeah, while Christmas spirit and holiday joy isn’t exactly twinkling inside me, but I’ve been doing this long enough now to be damned appreciative for the perks that come with it. After the last five years of Tennessee exile, I’ve come to think of Cecil County unblinkingly as home… But getting to spend some time at the real thing is definitely going to make the holiday for me.

When Days Off Aren’t…

Posted on by

Maybe I’m blowing this out of proportion, but one of the things that makes me absolutely apoplectic is getting calls from the office on vacation days. Ninety-nine times out of 100, I’ve planned these days in advance, have put a lid on whatever projects I happen to be working on and handed off key pieces of information to the guy who’s backstopping me for the day. The fact is there’s nothing I’m working on that’s so important that it can’t wait less than 24 hours until I’m back at my desk. I know this because A) I’m not highly graded enough to start or end a war by myself and B) My distinguished institution survived two and a quarter centuries before I started showing up at the office.

As a rule, I don’t ask much of my employer. All I’m really looking for is a regular pay check and health insurance, a reasonably predictable schedule, and a few days off here and there. Other than that, anything else that comes down the pike is pretty much just a perk. I appreciate those too, but I certainly don’t expect them. Does “not calling me for trivial and routine issues when I’m off” qualify as an unreasonable expectation? I mean had I happened to be gone on a two-week cruise they wouldn’t have called, why is taking a random day off though the week given any less consideration? Spending two hours on the phone going over things with the office pretty much defeats the point of taking the day off. I wonder how telling them I’m only taking six hours of vacation for the day since I was working the other two would go over.

I know it’s a recession out and making waves for your employer isn’t a great idea. That’s why I’m here ranting instead of in the boss’ office ranting, right? But still, if that little bit of consideration is a bridge too far, just let me know.

Editorial Note: This part of a continuing series of posts previously available on a now defunct website. They are appearing on http://www.jeffreytharp.com for the first time. This post has been time stamped to correspond to its original publication date.

Lacking motivation…

Posted on by

I don’t guess anyone really looks forward to Mondays, but most of the time I can muster enough interest to get up and moving without too many issues. Looking at a work week that’s only going to be two days long makes that level of motivation completely impossible. Let’s be realistic shall we. In the face of a five day weekend, I’m going to be mentally checked out the minute I walk in the door tomorrow. Admitting that out loud probably doesn’t make me a model employee, but fortunately I’ve only ever claimed to be good, not great so that’s fine. So if anyone needs me for the next two days I’ll be the guy trying to keep his head down and hoping everyone else is doing the same.

Score…

Posted on by

One of the unforeseen perks of moving this summer and forgoing my usual spring trip was the recent discovery of an almost 70-hour balance of vacation time that I have to take between now and the end of the year. Of course it could also have something to do with needing to take way few Mental Health Mondays too. Whatever the case, if it all gets approved as requested, the last few months of the year are looking like a bonanza of 3-, 4-, and 5-day weekends. Maybe it’s not sitting on a beach somewhere, but it’s a definite score. The Annual Burning of the Leave begins Friday.

Missing out…

Posted on by

I realized yesterday that the unremitting focus on finding another job and launching my escape from Memphis has had yet another unexpected victim. This is usually at this time of year when I’m in the final stages of plotting a trip that will take me somewhere with warm sea breezes, palm trees, and a rum economy. With the unknown costs of a long-hoped for move to consider and the more recent threat of a government shut down, it’s probably for the best that I overlooked this annual ritual. Still, though, there’s something about those trips that’s good for the soul. Or maybe it’s just the breakfast mimosas on the beach, rum punch and bushwhackers on the pool deck in the afternoon, and a bottle (or two or three) of good wine at dinner that helps slow the brain down a bit and lets the relaxation set in.

It’s too late for this winter, but here’s hoping that the six directions I’m going in currently will settle themselves into a new normal by this point next year and I’ll get my toes in the sand sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I still have an escape left to plan… and maybe I can sneak away for a long weekend in Vegas. It’s not exactly relaxing, but it’s always fun.