Back from the beach...

Several friends and I headed down to Gulf Shores this weekend. We left around midnight Friday night and got back Monday night. It was a quick trip, but a little something to calm me before the craziness of Summer Reading. I called work today to check in and see how things were going and I just shouldn't have done it. Seriously, why did I call in? It's not going to make me feel any better. I'm not going to be able to fix anything and all it does is make me feel guilty about not being at work. Literally, I took 2 vacation days and I feel guilty. It's ridiculous. I hate the summer. That is one thing about being a children's librarian in a public library - you lose your summer. You learn to dread it and I all think about is summers of days gone by. Why didn't I appreciate summers off? I'm going to have to wait until I'm 65 to have another summer off.

If you can't tell, I seem to be suffering from vacation blues.

Mid-vacay breakdown

Not much to really update, but I felt like writing. I took my car to get the emissions checked (required in the great state of Tennessee) and while waiting in the long line - it was two days before the end of the month so I should have expected it - I cleaned my sh*t hole of a vehicle. I haven't cleaned it in months...perhaps a year and it needed it. Dropped the car off at the Honda place and got a tune up and had them fix a few things on it. It rained all day today so I didn't do much, although dad and I went to this diner located inside of a Harley-Davidson store and it was awesome. Strange, but awesome. We had shrimp etoufee tonight and it was also delicious. My brother, sister-in-law, and I played Life (I guess it's a new trend?) and I lost. Coni won, but I have my suspicions that she was cheating. I have no proof, but I lost so it seems probable in my mind. Tomorrow I plan on hanging out with an old friend and her kids - my godchildren :)

BTW, The Tenth Circle was great. I started it late Wednesday night/Thursday morning and finished the last of it today. I would recommend it. Now, I have to find something else to read because I didn't bring anything else so that I would be forced to read my book. Hmmmm. I'll probably just read something I have stashed away in the house.

Leaving on a jet plane

Off to North Carolina to see Lee. We have a full weekend planned, including tailgating! Of course, there will be no sports watching just drinking and eating I hope. No need to ruin it by watching men run around grabbing ass and throwing a ball. Blah, blah. I will fill you in once I get back and let you know about all the fun things we get up to.

What to do, what to do?

I need to use my vacation soon. I have a certain number of days saved up and I will be taking an actual "vacation." It makes me feel very adult to have this kind of time available. I think I will probably divide it up and take a couple of smaller trips. This is quite different from the vacations my parents took my brother and I on when we were kids. I used to love those long trips to all sorts of places in the middle of the summer. I loved the night before leaving our house because everyone was trying to pack their bags and my mom was always in a bad mood because she hated getting everything together and then inevitably forgetting something. We would get up super early in the morning and then set out for our 3 week+ trip. A dependable destination was a week or two in Louisiana visiting family and old friends. After this we would drive the interminable distance to any number of states below the Mason-Dixon line. One year we went to Disney World, other times we went to Savannah, Charleston, Charlotte, and any other cities generally located below the Mason-Dixon line. Don't worry, we also went to New York, London, Wales, and other more exotic locals. Sorry to digress, but the thought of a vacation gets me a little nostalgic.