Where's my real vacation?
Vacation is kind of a joke in my family, because we never really go on vacations. We go to my Grandmother's house (which she no longer lives in since she has been remarried) to spend a few weeks at VA Beach basically setting up a second home complete with boring family meals, hours spent reading and listening to music and the general crankiness and dysfunction of our family... adding only the daily trip to the beach, which I do not participate in because of my general distaste for sand, sea lice, jellyfish and rough currents (all three of which I encountered on my last ill-advised trip into the ocean). If this sounds disappointing and completely unrelaxing or exciting, you are definitely correct. The only allure it has for me is the occasional dinner out (one of my favourite restaurants is here otherwise I would seriously not come at all) and some better shopping than can be had close to home. And yet we've done it every single year since about 1999 and my parents never even consider doing something else with the first two weeks in August. I think they actually enjoy this miserable excuse for a vacation. Which is why my parents stay for two weeks and I am only here for a few days--clearly there is not enough for me to do here to fill up the time, especially since my sister stopped going with us.
I guess it's fine to have only a few days of vacation--to be honest I'd rather stay shorter rather than longer because I get so bored and annoyed with my family it's not even funny--but at the same time I wish for once we could go on a vacation that actually deserved the name. Unfortunately my parent's idea of a hotel is a friend or relative who lives within a 45 mile radius of wherever we go so there's not much chance of getting to relax in any sort of style. SIGH. I realize we are not made of money but COME ON! Other people manage to have a few days vacation without going bankrupt, but clearly not this family.
That being said, I guess it's not all bad. I did go shopping yesterday which was fun and provided consumerism-based happiness. And today we saw the Dark Knight on IMAX. But it does seem really hard to fill in the times when we aren't doing anything. And because we only do one fun thing per day tops, that leaves a lot of time to fill. Right now we've returned 'home' and I am looking at a dinner of packaged macaroni and cheese squarely in the face and anticipating a night of reading and surfing channels. Ugh I wish I could just go to bed now and have someone wake me when it was time to do something again.
All that keeps me awake is the thought of the new Ben & Jerry's flavour I bought, Imagine Whirled Peace. It's amazing and has pretty much made the 4 hour trip down here worth it if only to give me a reason to resort to dessert as a means of entertainment and novelty.
I guess it's fine to have only a few days of vacation--to be honest I'd rather stay shorter rather than longer because I get so bored and annoyed with my family it's not even funny--but at the same time I wish for once we could go on a vacation that actually deserved the name. Unfortunately my parent's idea of a hotel is a friend or relative who lives within a 45 mile radius of wherever we go so there's not much chance of getting to relax in any sort of style. SIGH. I realize we are not made of money but COME ON! Other people manage to have a few days vacation without going bankrupt, but clearly not this family.
That being said, I guess it's not all bad. I did go shopping yesterday which was fun and provided consumerism-based happiness. And today we saw the Dark Knight on IMAX. But it does seem really hard to fill in the times when we aren't doing anything. And because we only do one fun thing per day tops, that leaves a lot of time to fill. Right now we've returned 'home' and I am looking at a dinner of packaged macaroni and cheese squarely in the face and anticipating a night of reading and surfing channels. Ugh I wish I could just go to bed now and have someone wake me when it was time to do something again.
All that keeps me awake is the thought of the new Ben & Jerry's flavour I bought, Imagine Whirled Peace. It's amazing and has pretty much made the 4 hour trip down here worth it if only to give me a reason to resort to dessert as a means of entertainment and novelty.