Vacation come, vacation go.

June 3, 2017

Vacation come, vacation go. Yes, it's now the second Saturday of my spring vacation. That means the vacation is over and we've moved on to a regular weekend. There's laundry and cooking to do. Ho-hum.

Last year I tempted fate in my end-of-vacation blog, and fate decided to bite me. I dared to say I wondered what vacation 2017 would bring. I guess I know now.

With all the life changes in the last year, I truly hoped for some quiet time. (Read that I wanted to hide from everyone.) Unfortunately, on Sunday, May 28, my stepfather found out I was on vacation and on Monday, May 29, he called me at daybreak to say he "thought" he needed to go to the hospital. I told him to call an ambulance. Instead, he drove himself to the emergency room. They kept him all of about an hour and gave him instructions to call his primary care physician. He was back home before I'd taken shower. I knew there was nothing wrong with him and he only wanted attention. He's been like this ever since my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. After two years of this attention-begging behavior, I'm mentally and emotionally exhausted with this man. My mother married him, I did not.

That's not to say the entire vacation was a bust. No, we didn't get to go anywhere, not even a day trip, but we had some good moments just relaxing on the patio and playing with Deuce. Deuce had his annual checkup with booster shots and the vet proclaimed him to be "great." Of course he's great. He's Deuce!

The spousal unit baked me a birthday cake which turned out very well. He can open a box and add eggs and water with the best of them. The trouble happened when he added peanut butter to a can of buttercream frosting. The end result was well worth the cleanup.  I may even have cake for breakfast today.

It's back to work on Monday. I'm trying to be philosophical about burning five vacation days that contained very little mental health rest, but it's not really working. My fear is this week is a harbinger of things to come. Early retirement isn't looking so good. I need the escape into the day job to breathe. Trust me when I say I NEVER thought I'd say that! I've been obsessing about the day I no longer need to go to work every day and now here we are. It's not the least bit amusing. (Well, maybe a little if  you're outside looking in.)

And I do know something else. Next year for my spring vacation, I'm going to leave home and I'm not taking my cell phone, just my laptop. Maybe next year. 

KC
www.kckendricks.com