Wow!
It's Sunday AM. My first full week of vacation in over five years has come to an end.
My first full week of vacation EVER with my little girl has come to an end.
What a wonderful week it has been! As sad as I am that it is over, I'm ready to go home and get back into my normal routine. Now don't get me wrong, I'd greatly prefer for my normal routine to be in this tiny island community, but it is not.
I am practical or logical or simply mundane enough to understand that this is a vacation and I cannot afford to live in it. I must return to work. I must return to the real world. I must be back in my house surrounded by my things. I miss my couch!!!
This has not been an extravagant or expensive vacation by most accounts. In the course of the past 8 days, I've only eaten out four times; the majority of my meals were home cooked!
I didn't go anywhere exclusive but maybe a little reclusive. It was nice to fall under the radar for a while. I actually left my cell phone in my car, all alone, for like three hours during the day one day while we were here. That's quite a BIG deal!!!
Our daily routine pretty much consisted of waking up, getting up enough energy to drive the 1.5 miles to the other house we are occupying with another very close family, have breakfast, walk the block and a half to the beach with kids and dogs, let my dog play in the ocean, the drag her out, watch her roll in the sand to dry off, then watch her run back into the waves, curse, repeat a few steps with the dog and then head back to the house. Thats just the morning.
Midday pretty much consisted of watching tv while the dogs sleep, loading up everything we can think of and heading back to the beach for a few hours, two adults with four kids in tow. The kids would whine about having to go back to the beach and say how much they didn't want to go and then they would play like wild animals as soon as we got there. After a few hours we would head back to the house for lunch. All the while, the kids would whine about how much they did NOT want to leave the beach. They're cute.
After lunch, there would be more tv and a lot of games played in the cool ac of the house. After a nap (for me and the other adult) my daughter and I would head back to my place for our afternoon showers. We'd hang out with the dog at my place for an hour or so and then head back. Upon our return to the other house, there might be dog walks, bike rides or some games played. Then dinner followed by sunset on the beach. That's my favorite time. Two grown ups sitting in beach chairs watching the sunset and sipping whine or some sort of concoction while the kids played in the waves until it was too dark onl to break out flashlights and look for "ghost crabs" until nothing but stars lit the sky. Then it was back to the house for games and maybe some dessert. Around ten-ish, my girl and my dog and I would head back to our place to sleep for the night.
I could SOOOOO get used to this routine. But alas, I cannot afford it. I must work and I must live I my current hometown.
But this has been a nice "escape" from my normal routine even though I brought my whole life with me. It's been very relaxing and I've had some quality time with my little girl and other people very near and dear to me.
I have learned a few things during this past week. First off, I needed to relax!!! My last full week of vacation was less than a year after my Father had died. I was still a mess when I went, but it really did help me de-stress. In the five and a half years since, my life has completely turned upside down and basically fallen apart. I have not taken much time to truly de-stress from that. This has REALLY helped, but I had some weird dreams about the past few years this week. I will choose to not explain.
I've also learned that pink is the new tan for me! Seriously, in my youth, my Italian blood was very helpful in me getting extremely dark over the summers. However, in my old age, my Irish blood has taken over and I now turn a remarkable shade of of pink. Oh joy!!! It doesnt really hurt like sunburn, but I'm pinkish in places.
I've learned that my child is really bad at getting creative with coffee. Seriously, one morning she poured me a coffee with a hint of "a surprise." That surprise was oj. Not good. The next few days she opted to add coffee grounds to morning coffee to make it "pretty!" Last year she and I came down her for three days. She added syrup and butter to my coffee then. That is called "pancake coffee surprise!" I was.
I've learned that my dog LOVES the ocean. She cannot get enough of it. In addition,I've learned that she is perfectly fine with swimming through the surf whilst towing four kids on boogie boards. Yup, that's my dawg!!!
Mostly I've learned that I need a week or two or more away from work each year to diffuse and recharge. I think any employer who limits their staff to only two weeks, or less, of vacation each year, is shooting their own company in the foot. I'm ready to go back. I'm almost excited to catch up and see what I have missed. Yeah, it sounds crazy, right?
This has been a great week, but next year, I'm brining my couch and I might just put it on the beach!!!
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