It's supposed to be a time to de-stress.

So it turns out, I'm really popular at work. Everybody wants me in their office. I'm sure it has everything to do with my sharp wit and intellect, but deep down I think it has more to do with the fact that people want to take vacation.

Because that's what I do: someone takes a vacation, I cover their desk. It's certainly not easy, but I never turn down a challenge. Plus it works really well with the commitment issues. And the short attention span.

For some reason this year as the new calendar year loomed, people started getting almost competitive with their vacation days (which I naturally assume means they are all fighting over having ME in their branches). It came down to the branch managers meeting with their manager about coverage and who would get what and when and how would they solve the problem of overlapping vacations. Because if you don't use your vacation after a period of time, you lose it (never happens to me). And there are a LOT of escrow folks out there who are on the brink of losing theirs.

But really, this isn't the important part (or the part that would inspire me to sit down in my small window of "me" time before bedtime on a Thursday night). The important part stems from about seventy five people wanting to take Spring Break off because they have kids in various stages of schooling. Only one person is going to get coverage, so the managers have to figure out how to handle it.

As a single person, I've never taken the "family" type holidays as my vacation time. I'm more of a middle-of-the-winter kind of girl, mostly because I get so sick of being cold that I want to go somewhere warm. I have always deferred the Christmas/Thanksgiving/Spring Break/Mid Summer/Labor Day/Memorial Day/Fourth of July weekend situations to those otherwise encumbered by spouses and/or offspring. Because I'm nice. I was raised with good manners. Plus I don't have to wait for my kid or husband to get time off to do something fun; I was smart enough to keep things simple and therefore do things on MY agenda.

So recently someone mentioned that a coworker with no children wanted to take vacation during a holiday week more commonly suited to families. She was laughed at; well, maybe not LAUGHED at, but poo-poo'd at, like, Oh don't be silly. YOU don't need that time off, YOU don't have any CHILDREN.. and all the hens with overworked uteruses (uteri?) cackled amongst themselves and the request was ignored.

And THAT, my friends, is what pisses me off.

Because I chose NOT to reproduce, I get the sloppy seconds. I'll never have a party where everyone gives you a bunch of free shit because I got knocked up or decided to completely surrender my independence to some guy, and I'll never get to take advantage of maternity leave. Now you want to take away my major holidays? That's right. I have the financial means and complete freedom to spend Christmas skiing in Aspen, or celebrating Independence Day in Washington DC, or Saint Patrick's Day in New York (or Spring Break in Cancun... but yeah, you know I don't want to do that..). But because I have no children, the very reason why I have so much money and freedom, I CAN'T take these holidays. I think that is the most absurd and discriminatory thing ever. I'm mostly serious. I mean, I've been nice for the past thirty years because I have always had the flexibility of taking my vacations whenever I want to; but to have someone poo poo this coworker of mine like she didn't DESERVE a specific week simply because she wasn't stupid enough to have kids?

Wrong. It's wrong, and it pisses me off. And I, for one, can do something about it. I fully intend to request Spring Break week, the week around July 4, Labor Day weekend and a couple of days around it, and the last two full weeks in December as my vacation. For next year. Because this year I'm already booked on everyone else's desks.

Not quite a month

No pressure or anything, but some of you have given me some grief about not having blogged. So I'm blogging. Okay? I'm F'ING blogging. Are you happy now? Just remember when you're finished reading this that it wasn't so much inspiration that is making me do this, but the fact that I feel obligated to entertain in some way at the risk of you never reading again, and we all know what happens when I have nothing to say. Let that be your warning.

So yeah, um, went to Palm Springs in the middle of the month. Not really Palm SPRINGS but rather Palm Desert. It was a weird trip. I mean, I had a good time and everything, but it was weird. I didn't much have to pay for anything besides my airfare and then my entertainment, but Palm Desert is like 789 miles away from the Coffee Bean on Palm Canyon so we only made it over there one morning. Plus it was pretty cold out. We laid out a grand total of two hours and forty-five minutes. I've never been so pale in my whole life.

And you can't say it wasn't an adventure - the flight home was cancelled so quick-thinking TtheD, intent on being home when she SAID she was going to be home, rented a car and booked a flight out of Long Beach for later that day. Mission accomplished. The good news is Alaska Airlines issued $375 in travel vouchers for my trouble. Which pretty much means that with the a refund of half my paid airfare and the travel vouchers, the trip actually cost me $35 when you factor in the additional plane ticket home. THAT's a vacation I can sink my teeth into.

So NOW I can comfortably plan my Wisconsin trip in September - Alaska flies nonstop to Chicago so I'll rent a car and drive to Fond du Lac. I like driving. I like nonstop flights more. Google Wisconsin Dells and then look at events for September - that's where I'm going. I will never remember the name of the festival we are attending, and when I do remember it I don't know how to spell it, but it begins with a "w" and right now that's all anybody needs to know. But, yeah, FdL in September. You didn't think I'd do it again after that last go 'round, did you?*

I guess the next question is, (as Dave would say) now what? I'm looking at Palm Springs again in May. Looking at it. And of course I have to go somewhere Mexican in December. But I can't think of those things right now, since it's February. Right now I just have to get through that part where it gets dark at 5:30 (but 5:30 is a big improvement over 5..). Then I'll be fine.

How am I doing, you ask? Because I'm assuming you did. I'm fine. Bored. Hanging with the neighbor and pretending to be more social. I've been working in Lincoln Tower, and that's good because it's so close, but not-so-good because it's been busier than CRAP. But I can do busy. LT is a good office for me because there are lots of different people to shove my personality on.

What else? I cheated on my bag lady and bought a purse yesterday at the JJill. It's bitchin but we'll see how long it takes me to become disenchanted with it. Since I got home from the JJill yesterday and switched out purses, I haven't actually left the house to use it, so we'll see how well it travels when I venture out (showerless) to the Fred Meyer later today. These are the important things in my life right now. There are others but I won't bore you.

So yeah, I guess this is it for the blog today. I promise to try harder (a promise I find myself constantly making) (and breaking) (well, it's not like I'm not trying, it's just that whole sitting-down-to-type thing) in the future to entertain you with the mundane-ness of my winter life. Which just results in more drivel. Keep in mind, you asked for it.
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*Long time readers will remember a September trip to FdL where the plane almost crashed, the flight got stuck in Madison, and I drank a lot of Jager-Bombs. It was like in 2009 or 2008. Look it up, if you didn't read about it. The archives are right over there. >>>