When Diane nicely emailed me last month to remind me that I have a zillion hours of PTO and that I really needed to begin to use some of those hours, I laughed because I’d just been thinking about that very thing. After clarifying with her that I really don’t have a zillion hours and I only have about a trillion, I decided I’d take a few days off early in November in order to catch up on some stuff that I haven’t had time to do.
I looked at the calendar, nothing jumped out at me as the perfect days to take some time off. I asked TW if she had any preferences, she did not provide any input. I looked at the calendar again.
I decided on Thursday and Friday because the little kids would be here and I could help TW with the driving to school and stuff. And I chose Monday because I knew we were going to have an especially busy weekend with our circus adventure on Sunday. There’s nothing worse than waking up Monday morning and feeling like you didn’t have any “weekend” time.
Smart choices, right?
All of this made even more sense once I found out that on top of the normal kid busy-ness and the circus, we would be driving RJ to hell and back all weekend long for her high school play. Thank goodness I took Monday off, right? Right!
Thursday was a most excellent day off and I was feeling pretty darn good about my PTO — until this morning.
5am and RJ is barreling down the stairs (which are right outside of our bedroom.) I did manage to fall back asleep but the alarm went off at 6am. I groaned and thought about going back to sleep – TW could just take the kids to school and I could enjoy my vacation by sleeping in. Hah. That doesn’t work because both RJ and the Prince use the shower in my bathroom. I sighed. Got out of bed. Made my way blearily to the bathroom. Threw on some clothes. Stumbled to the door and there was RJ tapping her foot waiting to get in to my bathroom.
At that point I wondered what in the hell I was thinking when I scheduled vacation during a kid weekend – a kid weekend when the kids have to go to school. There’s nothing worse than being on vacation and having RJ wake you up at 5am, barrel past you into your bathroom for a shower, and obsessing about how late she’s going to be when you pull up in front of her school more than a half hour before the first damn bell.
That is not relaxing. That is not the stuff vacations are supposed to be made of.
Someone remind me of this when I prepare to take my PTO hours in February, ok?
I like posts like this. And you’re right, that’s not what vacations are supposed to be made of, ever.
Honestly Denise…when was the last time you had a normal, relaxing vacation? I’m surprised you even took these few days off to rest and do other things beside work. One thing I know…a ‘kid’ vacation weekend will never get it done. Those are just as hard on a person as a working-at-your-job one…maybe more so. Now you’ll probably need PTO to recupe from your vacation weekend with the kids….even if they are some of my favorite people. LOL ~Joy