Vacation: Work, But Worth It
My boys, on vacation in 2008
Ever noticed how much work it takes to plan and prepare for a vacation, so much so that by the time the vacation begins you need it even more than you did before?
Booking hotels (and sometimes flights), washing all the laundry before, packing clothes, packing toys, packing medicine, packing stuff to do in the car (or on the flight), loading the car, washing all the dirty dishes before you leave, arranging for neighbors to take care of the mail, the trash, the pets, the plants … and that’s just the home chores.
At work, you have to let everyone know you’re going to be out and tell them what to do in your absence, and often work ahead so your absence is less of a burden on co-workers. And of course when you get back there’s the backlog of email and all the work you missed. You end up working over time the week after vacation because being out a week has put you behind.
Then of course the vacation itself is “work” too. Sometimes people come back from a trip saying they need a vacation from the vacation. You come back with suitcases full of dirty laundry and an empty refrigerator. And the aforementioned email at work, snail mail at home, etc.
Regardless of all that though, getting away from the daily grind and experiencing something different is uniquely refreshing and therefore worth whatever extra work or planning it takes.
I missed writing a post in time for this month’s Rocket City Bloggers carnival; the theme was vacation. Check out other vacation posts from Huntsville, Ala., bloggers on this month’s host blog, Girl Gad About.
