I realized last week that for the first time ever, I am poised to finish the year without using all of my vacation time. This is utterly appalling to me, and I am even more upset about it than I am when people tell me that oh, it’s ok that they’ll miss seeing the baseball game because they’ll just Tivo it (which is to say, quite upset). Obviously this excess of leave means I have not taken enough vacations this year.
Sadly, I don’t think this is a problem I’ll be able to fix. While I have two (possibly three) more long weekends planned for 2007, there is no big trip this year. No Greece, no Machu Picchu, no Patagonia. To make up for this, I can look forward to not one but two very large trips next year.
Last week, one of Jose’s best friends from college was in town to visit her fiance, who is a Ph.D. student in geology and was interning for Chevron over the summer. We had sushi up in town and Jose and Meryl got caught up on the three years of events since they’d last seen each other. She and James, her fiance, are both very nice and they’re getting married next July in her home state. Did I mention that her home state is Alaska?
So next summer I will finally get to go to Denali. We’re already planning to take a solid week off work and go to the wedding in Anchorage, spend some time in Denali, and take in whatever else there is to see. I can’t wait!
The other big trip is a long jaunt to Japan sometime in the spring. We weanted to go this fall, but we just couldn’t squeeze it in among holidays, already-planned activities, and the various shuttle missions and their possible slippage. Japan!
2008 is gonna be awesome.
Japan is great- you will love it! I will be there again in the spring- this time likely in Tokyo instead of Okinawa. Maybe we’ll be there at the same time….