Going on vacation

Remember last time when I was blathering on about all the things I love about my job?
Well, here’s the flip side. It’s Sunday night (March 12) and I’m exhausted. I worked from 8:30 to 2:00 today because on Thursday we’re leaving for a 9-day vacation in northern California, which we really need.

It’s now 8:50 p.m. and I still have to drive my mother home. (She comes for dinner almost every week and at the moment is watching the tail end of a Pistons game.) It’s a 36-mile round trip and I’m sure I’ll have to hear her ask 20 more times why I have to go so far away. “Why can’t you just go to Grand Haven?” she always says.

Before we leave, I have to:

Get all my jobs done:

• Put together the client PR award entry for the American Business Awards (6 hours at least). This is a job I took to help out a colleague who assisted me in the same position a few months ago. Paybacks are indeed a bitch.
• Write up and send in Week 8 updates for TBN testimonials (10 people).
• Interview same 10 people for Week 9 & 10 updates.
• Transcribe tape, write up and send in above testimonials (due when I’m gone).
• Follow up on HCI bio.
• Get revised copy to Mark for TQ ads.
• F/U with new client about interviewing one of her clients before I leave for an ad they need when I return.
• Write story on Russia and turn in.
• F/U with contact on new RB story, due 4/4.
• Send D. a list of ideas for “reinvigorating” RB website.
• Email same editor one story and 2 new story ideas, all of which, praise Jesus, I have done.
• Write up/send in 2 new weight loss testimonials and/or tell J that we don’t have photos for the 3/31 testimonials and ask her to extend deadline.
• Email travel editor at GRP and ask her if she might be interested in a story on northern California. (Fat chance)
• Post my blog (this) which I try to do every Monday come hell or high water.
• Deal with the 49 emails sitting in my inbox.
• Make plane reservations for my 4/8 California trip (for work).
  

Get ready for the trip:

• Take all the pictures off the walls and move furniture for the painter who’s going to be here while we’re gone.
• Pack, cancel mail, paper, etc. etc.
• Make hotel reservations for at least part of our trip.
• Let nephew Tim know we will be staying with him Sat. night for sure.
  

Jesus, Mary and holy St. Joseph, get me thru this without having a heart failure. (I was having panic attacks trying to get to sleep last night.)

On Monday night we’re supposed to go to a family birthday celebration and on Tues. night to a friend's house for freshly caught grouper, flash frozen and flown home from Bahamas. (The timing's not great, but how could we resist?!)

Can I do it? Yes, I can do it. But at what price? It’s like Brenna says, “Sometimes you have to work so hard to go on vacation, it’s almost not worth it.” That’s kind of where I am right now.

And then you get home and you have to jump right back in without skipping a beat because unlike working at a company, nobody takes your calls when you’re gone. Nobody pays you for the time off, either, and nobody really understands why you’re so stressed out before and after you go.

It’s not always like this when we try to get away -- I'm unbelievably busy right now -- but you never know. That’s just the nature of the game.

Regardless, I have to admit I’m always glad when I finally do get on a plane. But then, within a week of coming home, you’re so immersed in work again that you’ve forgotten you were even gone!

I don’t know, maybe B’s right. Is it worth it?