The mini-cation

For those of you who know me, you know that spontaneity is a quality that I hold true and dear. I’ve picked up and gone to Germany for-the World Cup on a whim, I’ve flown to Florida for a long weekend, I’ve driven to Minneapolis to see the Eagles play, and in college I took tons of weekend road trips that weren’t conceived until the last possible minute. I love the weekend getaway. LOVE. I can’t over-state this. And yet, it occurred to me recently that I haven’t had a solid mini-cation in awhile (that’s mini vacation, for those of you who may not be particularly astute). So, a few weeks back, I looked at my schedule and realized that if I swung my schedule just right, I could have two back to back four day weekends. Four-day weekends tend to mean great things for my stress levels and terrible things for my liver. This seemed a fair compromise, and thus the slightly (but not really) spontaneous planning began.

Long story short, I decided on two locations – One weekend I spent three days in Nashville (via Pittsburgh) visiting a friend I haven’t seen in years, and the following weekend I went to the shore for four days to hang out with my college friends. While I could bore you with every little nuance of both trips, I instead have decided to break down things I usually do that I ignored while on vacation, and things I never do that I got to do on vacation. Ready go.

Things I normally do, but I didn’t do on vacation:

· Surf the web to keep myself entertained
· Check my email
· Work
· Think about work
· Set an alarm clock (this one’s BIG)
· Wear my uniform (my work clothes)
· Oh, and did I mention work and/or think about work?

Things I normally don’t do, but I did on vacation:

· Swim in, and get my ass kicked by the tropical storm-angered ocean
· Early morning Bloody Marys (or is that Maries? Nah, I feel like that’s a whole different name. Moving on)
· Read for pleasure
· Honky Tonk bars!
· Take lots of tourist-y pictures
· Play Beirut (or “beer-pong” for you simpletons out there)
· Eat awesome southern BBQ
· And fresh sea food
· Get a tan
· Play copious amounts of Rock Band
· Ball-bust and catch up with my best friends

So, you’re saying you haven’t taken a sweet mini-cation in a while? Well, if your trips are anything like my trips, I hope this list is a healthy reminder that you’re due. So get out there and go someplace this weekend, or next weekend, or sometime while the weather’s still nice. Hell, if you’ve never been in a stadium with 108,000 screaming fans, you could always come to Happy Valley this weekend for the Syracuse game. Then you get to have a mini-cation while I have a stay-cation. We’re all winners!

Now get back to work, crazy.