It’s my first day of vacation

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At 7:15 this morning, the cat needed to be outside, preferably immediately, if not ten minutes sooner. Despite arriving home after 2am, I was very chipper and rather awake. This was made evident by me not throwing things at the cat who paced from one side of the bedroom floor to the other, reminding anyone in a two block radius that daylight had been burning away for almost over an hour – carpe effin diem!

I get it now.

Today begins two weeks off from work (voluntary, thank you) as I have rather cool, important places to be in 5 days. I’m fortunate to have a job that values its employees down time to the extent that we are given more paid time off than we can ever ethically use in a year. Plus, they let you take it with a smile.  “Have a great time! Don’t worry about stuff, we can handle it”.  As I frantically wrapped things up yesterday, I was repeatedly told to get the hell out and enjoy my vacation.  I offered my cell number and told them to call me if anything was needed, and I was given looks as if I’d told them to mow down baby ducks as meditative therapy. This is a big thing where I work – your time off is for you. No one ever calls anyone on time off. It’s awesome and amazing and an incredible professional environment that speaks to the confidence in its workers.

I was going to bring up previous jobs that sucked in this department but it’s so far in the past stories like that feel to me like taking a fork to old wound just to have something to complain about. I’m a little above that.

Instead I’ll spend a few days with husband and cats, feeling the pre-travel anxiety creep into my hands, trying not to worry if I’ve grown too fat or too old or less appealing in a year.  I will instead obsess about my nail polish, how low maintenance I can keep my hair and how many colors I can braid into into it (I’m thinking Blue, Green and Honey). I will attempt to not do what I’ve done in previous years, and pack only what I need, not what I think I might not be able to live without (ha).

In other words, I’ll actually enjoy my vacation.