How I Love Vacation

Last Monday I rushed to work... about 5 minutes late as usual. Unfortunately, as anyone who knows me has observed, the level of my stress-induced fatigue directly correlates to my punctuality. Since being so stressed out about our house (and work and missing a day and a half from being sick and life in general), it has been steadily rising for the last 5 months or so. I still keep it under 9:30am, but ideally I should arrive between 8:45-9. I have a fairly laid-back office, so it's not really a big deal as long as I don't miss a meeting (or deadline.) I also tend to stay later when this happens to compensate, or do work at night. So while I wish I was one of these early morning people who wakes up at 5:30am, goes for a 30 minute run, and sits under a tree for 15 minutes listening to the birds and basking in the sunrise, I most certainly am not. I am diligently working on going to bed earlier though. Staying up until midnight (or later) and only getting 4 hours of sleep a night may work in college when you have a month off every 3 months to rest up, but not in the real world.

Back to Monday, I got into the office and my boss told me to take Friday off for the 4th of July. He apologized for not thinking about it sooner, but said that I needed the day off. I heartily agreed. (I often agonize over taking Federal holidays off... because I want to maximize my vacation days. I'm beginning to learn why I need to take them off though - to preserve sanity.) My husband also had the day off (and Thursday afternoon), so we decided to get away for the weekend since we have been trying - and failing - to plan a vacation for about 2 months now. We looked at hotels at every beach location within reasonable driving distance and decided on Amelia Island.

It was wonderful.

I don't think I have ever enjoyed going to the beach as much as I did last weekend. It was not an overly exciting weekend - we drove down Friday morning/afternoon. Went for a walk on the beach and got some sea food for dinner. We slept in the next morning and then went to the beach for a few hours (about 11am to 1pm so I got some sun for the first time in about 2 years.) We then partook in the 4th of July festivities - a little parade and a beautiful fireworks display over the harbor. The people sitting behind us were interesting of the North Florida redneck variety, but other than their atrocious accents they were pretty entertaining - one woman wanted to "give me money to immediately move away from Atlanta." I didn't mention that we just bought a house there... We then had to search for some food because the one thing this celebration lacked was rampant commercialization via vendor cart. I was astonished that there were absolutely no vendors out considering there were several thousand crowded into the historic downtown district. I assume there was an ordinance and I think they tried to localize the vendors in the "park celebration" earlier in the day. Oh well. The fireworks were still great. And I bet I can find some 4th of July Mardi Gra beads on sale at Kroger or CVS... because that's what the Founders clearly would have wanted.

I must say, I'm a little shocked at how uneventful our weekend was and how wonderful that made it. Life is so busy and stressful all the time that it was nice to take a break and essentially "do nothing." I also find the ocean to be the most calming sound in the world. Even though I am absolutely terrified of it. I refuse to get in the ocean above my knees for fear of imminent drowning. I also am perpetually afraid of sea creatures biting or stinging me. Wading around is nice though and I could walk along the beach for hours every day (too bad I'm married and can't put that in a singles ad, right?)

This weekend made me want to up and move to the beach. Even if that means just working at a hotel to make ends meet. I would never actually do that... but it was nice to think about for a few days. And I do hope that one day we will actually be able to move to the beach semi-permanently. As we were leaving, I still couldn't wait to get home to see the progress being made in our house. The hardwood floors have been installed, which is great! Things are moving along nicely and I can't wait until it's done. Our new house will be a great substitution until we can take off to the beach again.