We’ve just spent the last 25 days out of the country, visiting the Mouse and taking a Caribbean cruise. I think this might be the perfect amount of time to vacate as I’m much more relaxed than I was at the end of our trip last year. Disclaimer: I’m sitting in the Delta Lounge, off my face on Long Island Iced Teas.
How is it that we as a society decide that working ourselves to the bone over a 47 week period (due to my time at SAIT, I get 5 weeks of vacation) is okay? Why is that the norm? Why do we put up with it? How do we fix that so that we’re balancing our working lives with time away from work?
An even better question might be how do we make sure those 47 weeks don’t occur in one lump batch and make ‘mini holidays’ a norm again? I think I mull these ideas over at the end of every single holiday I’ve taken for the past eight years which doesn’t invalidate them, just makes me wonder if I’ll figure the answer out sometime soon.
My wife actually gets more time off than I do but she’s employed at a school and only really gets her long break during the summer because I get more flexibility in my schedule. I’ve considered Fall and Spring breaks and how to integrate them into my work schedule but this can’t be done for Sly.
Which is a conundrum because, unfortunately, I love her and love traveling with her. Not having her with me really does change the texture of a trip somewhere. On the one hand I become more adventurous, striking out in random directions to explore and find things that I wouldn’t normally do with Sly by my side. On the other, I don’t have the most important person in my life with me to share those experiences. I attempt a sort of ‘hacky’ pseudo-experience where I send her pictures and texts all day, telling her what I’m up to, where I am and what I’m seeing.
Did this last year with a spring trip to Vegas and it worked out pretty well. Five days off work and a quick jaunt out to Nevada gave me the recharge I needed to get me back in the fight at work.
So I’ve already started thinking about my next trip and it will probably be something quick and cheap (aka Vegas) that will get me out of the city for a few days and allow me to relax a bit.
This trip was incredible and I’ll probably want to write-up a few lines about it and some of the neat things we saw and did while away but I’m sitting in the Delta Lounge at MSP relaxing before our next flight which will take us home and I’m in more of a mind to sit and try to keep this travel glow going as long as I can.
Well maybe just a taste:
I’ll have more later.
Cheers!
Z