So I’ve become very restless lately and feel desperate for a vacation, but a conversation this weekend with the Hubs just kicked my ass right back into reality. That bastard* will only have like 2 days of PTO left for the year after taking some time off around the 4th of July! Argh. So, I’m thinking I should stop surfing the web for dreamy tropical vacations and cease planning out itineraries for weeks in Peru and Anguilla when my restlessness inevitably kicks in every afternoon in the office at around 2:30. No more travel message boards. No more Trip Advisor. No more of this awesome website.
We had a glorious week off of school between the end of our last class and the beginning of the next (tomorrow), and do you want to know what I did during that time? Practically nothing. I am so lazy. I think I thrive much better on a busy schedule, I need the discipline. Because last week, my friends… I was a MESS! On Tuesday, after the long weekend, I got to work at 7:30 only to walk into my office, turn on the lights, hang up my jacket, and finally notice that my laptop was not in the docking station on my desk and I had left the mother f-er at home, in the den. So, a great start to the work week, I had to drive back home in rush hour traffic, grab the computer, and drive back to work for a second time, again in rush hour traffic. Essentially, my normally 30 minute commute was 2 hours long, and I was at work until almost 7:00 to make up the hours. It was awesome.
On Wednesday, I decided that I seriously must have left my brain at the cabin over the weekend, because I forgot to brush my teeth, and didn’t realize it until I was half-way to work. I had to stop at a convenience store to buy a toothbrush and toothpaste, because no way in hell was I going to try to stick it out. This might seem like a very minor problem, but for me, having un-brushed teeth has to be the grossest feeling in the world. I just refuse to be in public with nasty, scummy, slimy, un-brushed teeth. Anyway, because I am a self-conscious ninny about everything, I had to buy more than just the toothbrush, because then the clerk might “know” that I forgot to brush my teeth. Yea, I know. I’m a sad, pathetic individual. So I bought a couple Sobe Lean drinks to put in the refrigerator at work, a piece of fruit to eat with my lunch, and, of course a bottle of water for the actual act of brushing my teeth, because I also couldn’t imagine the potential embarrassment of even walking into my office building with my scummy teeth. I took my loot out to my car, sat in the parking lot of the convenience store, and brushed my teeth, occasionally propping open the door to spit. Why do I do these strange things? Well, of course someone pulled up right next to me after my final spit and I quickly closed the door in embarrassment and started to get everything together so I could get out of there and actually get to work at a reasonable time. I averted my eyes from anything outside of my vehicle as I tidied up, and was sufficiently startled when I heard a knock at my window and turned to find a small Asian man looking in at me expectantly. My first instinct was to kick the car into reverse and get away from this whole situation, but my rational side convinced me that I was being, well frankly, irrational. I opened my window and found out that this man didn’t speak a lick of English outside of the words “city” and “go”. I figured out he was lost, and I believe trying to get to downtown Minneapolis. At least I hope that’s where he was trying to go, because that’s the way I sent him. Anyway, so in the end he wasn’t some kind of police officer out to give me a citation for spitting on private property, or a scary rapist preying on scatterbrained women who forget to brush their teeth at home, both of which my irrational side would have had me believing.
Where was I going with all this? Oh, yea, I am a mess when I don’t have a busy schedule keeping me on task. A complete mess. Although I can’t tell you how fantastic it felt coming home from work the last week and a half, knowing that I didn’t have to write a paper, or type up a stupid reality posting, or read a horribly dull article about IT in business written in 1998. I actually made good, healthy dinners every night and we took the dog for walks, it was fantastic. Ah, but all that ends tomorrow. Oh well.
* I feel bad about the bastard comment, it’s not Dan’s fault that he gets a measly amount of paid vacation and my family decided to take a ski trip in January that pretty much slashed his quota for the year in half. I become snotty and irritable when I want to be somewhere that I’m not.