Vay... cay... shun...??

I know not this word of which you speak.

But - gosh - it sounds like a lovely concept! You must come from a highly evolved and civilized species.

Srsly.

I don't really... what was the word again?... oh yeah - vacation. Not in the traditional "Summer Vacation" sense. At least, I haven't for some while now. Way back in 2006, the lad and I went to the Dominican Republic for a week. An ENTIRE week. In another country. With an abundance of beach-y goodness and a noticeable dirth of anything that HAD to be done. It was awesome and unaccustomed all at the same time.

But, as I say, that was a rather odd instance. It was, in fact, the first time I'd done that in over a decade and I haven't done it since. For years, I have been in the habit of saving my preshuss preshuss vacation days, hoarding them while my coworkers took two weeks off here or three weeks off there during the glorious summer months (which - as a total aside - WHERE are the glorious summer months this year, hmm?? I've had enough of the grey skies and chill winds, thanks) but I would not. My reasoning was simple.

I hoarded them so that I could do shows. And then twice a year I would wake up at ungodly hours, make my way blearily to a theatre and perform Shakespeare, two shows a day, for hundreds of high school students for two weeks running. Hard hard work. Then I would go back to my office job and everyone would look at me and wonder why I didn't look relaxed from my time off in the slightest.

Funny thing was - I always felt relaxed. Refreshed. Like I'd taken my brain out and given it a good shake and a dusting off and rotated it's tires and changed the oil (go go gadget-mixed metaphors!). In a way, it was almost better than a typical vacation (NOT that I'm casting aspersions on the Dominican beach napping - that was awesome!).

Anyway, this year, I'm sort of doing the same thing but with writing instead of acting. Like Jillian, my summer is being spent - as it was last year - eyeball-deep in the work. And I'm not gonna complain one tiny little bit. But if somebody wanted to bring me a mai-tai, that would be nice!