Friday, January 19, 2007

Vacation Fever

The best thing about being diagnosed with Stage 2 Hypertension aka “just waiting for the heart attack” is that I’m under doctor’s orders to live as stress-free as possible – at least for now.

In that vein (that’s a little pun for those of us with tiny veins and pre-heart disease), I realized it was high time for me to take a vacation.

It is the PERFECT time, actually.

First of all, I get 20 vacation days a year. Over the last six and a half years, I have stockpiled some vacation days, and so I already have 14 days in my vacation bank for this year. And it’s only January! Plus my boss has been after me to take a whole week off, instead of the one or two long weekends I have been taking here and there.

Secondly, we decided to drop a publication since our department is so overextended right now. That leaves a gap in my work schedule that is (you guessed it) exactly one week long. So, by taking vacation this next week, I can come back to work and not have a huge backlog of work.

Thirdly, this is a great time to take off, so I can get used to my new heart and blood pressure medication. Not to mention a few days of low stress living would be most welcome. By both me AND my heart.

So, I’m excited! I’m planning to do a lot of…well, how do I put this? Uh, nothing. Yep, a whole lotta nothin’. Just work on my books and maybe hang out with the one person who probably drives my blood pressure sky high (and I mean that in the best possible way) – my husband.

3 comments:

Jennittia said...

Enjoy your time off!! I have thought a lot about you this past week- just battling my own bout of the flu to be able to write. I wanted to shoot out an email, but this will do since you will not be at work for a week!! What an inspiration you are to me! I was so feeling sorry for myself being in the final month of pregnancy battling the misery of the flu and what amounted to a totally real but false labor. But then I read about your stuff and felt very sheepish for complaining. At least I know I have a happy ending to my pain. (Not that walking the streets of gold would not be amazing, but you know what I mean). Take care of yourself. You would be greatly missed if you departed this life so soon.

Charity said...

Hey You! Just felt that an explanation was in order. I don't remember the incident that you refered to at leadership camp but with all of my heart I know that I never meant that you would stretch them out b/c your feet were fat! I'm sure that I was just being a dork and not wanting you to wear them. I sometimes think that our perspective on life changes our perspective on other people and things that they may say or do. I don't know how to explain to you with enough emphasis in writing to let you know that your weight in high school or now or in 10 yrs. never has or will cause me a moment of thought because I don't care if your big or little it doesn't change who you are or how I love you and I sincerely believe that I felt the same way back in high school. ( maybe not the love part) Just Kidding I hope that you believe me. You can either laugh at me and think that I am lying to myself or believe me either way I still love you1

Ann-Marie said...

Charity,
I love you, too! In high school, I think I just felt really sensitive about my weight whenever I was around boys, and Leadership Camp was the only time I was around more boys than the stupid ones at our school. I'm sure I was doing a lot of "projecting" of my own insecurity on your comment.

I always felt like you accepted me, even when we were arguing, and that's maybe why I took the comment the wrong way. I'm sure I said a lot of mean things in the past, and I know I've never meant to hurt you.

Thankfully, as family, we always HAVE to love each other! I'm SO glad we're related - by the way, I think I probably DID stretch those shoes out...in your defense, your feet are a lot smaller than my big clodhoppers! :-)