Philosophy of Vacation

There is no greater feeling than completing the last "thing" you need to do before going on vacation. I'll get that feeling at 4:30 pm tomorrow afternoon when I lock the door at the Post Office and hop in the car free until the 15th. Our little family will take our first 3 person family vacation, which is my favorite achievement yet (although first baseball game was pretty high). We'll be headed southeast to see my grandparents and a certain sandy place the locals call "beach."

There are several different philosophies of what makes a good vacation. This is something I've thought about, so I'll share said thoughts with you, the reader.


Typically, Vacations parse out to the following varieties:

1 - Event/Location

       This is Disneyland or New York City

2 - Activity

        This is camping or skiing or scuba diving

3 - People

        This is visiting family, friends etc


I very, very, very, very much prefer #3. Vacation is an ancient word for "no work" (Vaca = vacuous, or empty and tion such as automation, "self work") which can also be translated "sleep". None of that is true, but it should be. Anyone who takes "vacation" to go climb a mountain or walk 50 miles has literally lost their mind. See Jim Gaffigan on camping. He nails it. If given a choice between a tent and virtually anything else, I'll never choose the tent. The "event" oriented vacation is often more stressful than the average 60 hour workweek and therefore defeats the purpose of leaving.

Instead, a perfect vacation is as follows. Arrive at random relative/friend's house. Sleep for 10-15 hours straight. Eat. Sit and talk to relative/friend for 3-4 hours. Eat. Sleep for 10-12 hours. Go to small, simple event/location such as Church or a museum with friend/relative. Eat. Watch movie. Eat. Sleep for 10-12 hours. Wash, rinse, repeat. This is vacation as the original authors intended it.

The mountain climbing, skiing, bicycling, surfing, maniacs come home from vacation "revitalized" and "plugged-in" which are code words for tired and sweaty. I come home from vacation with sleep-surplus and a +400 on my book-page quota.

This year, however, will be an exploratory expedition into the possibility of relocation. This is a fancy name, and fancy names always mean work. So, I will probably be doubly focused on increasing my sleep-surplus and burning away skin cells and hours at the aforementioned beach to compensate for the "workation" part of our journey.

All said, I'm stoked and have been on brain vacation since last Tuesday (right AFTER the Dirk/Duncan post so Ha!). I don't know what the Internet will be like out yonder so this'll be on hiatus till we return. Probably a summation of our vacation will re-launch us on the 16th. Till then, tootles.



Braves continue to beast. Retired Chipper's #10 on Friday, the first of a 3 game sweep of Arizona. Comfortable lead in the AL East heading into the All-Star break, Gattis and Beachy both almost ready to re-join the team. Things are feeling like '95, and couldn't be better.