Normal!

What do you do when you take a day of vacation?

This is the first full day of vacation since the last week of February.  For many people that wouldn't be that unusual.  After all, I did take a week of vacation in January for our annual ski trip to Colorado and a week of vacation in February to sail around the British Virgin Islands.  It isn't like I haven't taken any time off in 2013.  BUT my vacation year runs from the beginning of March to the end of February.  So based on my vacation year - I have only taken 1 1/2 days off this year.  I am able to carry forward up to 2 weeks of vacation and since I have been at my company for eons!!!! I get 6 weeks of vacation.  Yup, that's right - I have almost 8 full weeks of vacation to take before the end of February 2014, although as I said, I can carry 2 weeks over to 2014.   If I took a week off in every month from Aug thru Feb - I still wouldn't use all of my vacation and would end up carrying over 1 week!  

Cool, you say!  What is the problem with that?  I really am not complaining - but balancing the need for time away from work and managing a career is tough.  I love my work.  It is exciting and challenging . . . seriously, there is never a dull moment. I got myself in this predicament, if you can call it that, because I am the corporate sponsor of a huge software implementation project at work.  My staff have been putting in many hours and I just don't feel good taking time off, when they are not able to do so.  Well, we went live with the software implementation on the 15th and it went really well.  Unbelievably well, as a matter of fact.  We know there will be some issues popping up, but overall we feel really good about this.

So I took today off and it feels great.  Mentally I really needed to be away from work.  I haven't done anything unusual - slept a little later this morning, watered the garden, pulled weeds, took the dog for a short run, followed by a 4 mile run myself and put in a load of laundry.  Normal things!

Sometimes normal is what a person needs!