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unexpected vacation (it's ok)
Jun. 25th, 2024 08:20 amSo i was thinking about how much I'd like a day off, and that I only had like 2 personal days until my new contract begins on July 1. And it occurred to me, the reason I don't have vacation time on the 23-24 school year contract is... that I'm a 10 month employee (not year round). So on the contract in place until June 30th, I'm supposed to be Done for the Year as of like, june 20th.
I discovered this on June 20th :) with lots of 'wait a minute' and 'is this right' and checking with HR and payroll and biz administrator and my boss. I acknowledged that honestly I would prefer to have some time off but that I do have 'a few' things to do. (lots of mental uncertainty abounds about the 'right thing' and how much I could be doing) However, realizing that any extra work time isn't actually paid for in advance by the grant and has to be added in separately, which is an annoying process. Probably the dollar amount doesn't matter during that process anyway.
So lots of different parts of my brain are fighting about this - the Responsibility part, the Career part, the Don't Be Lazy part are ganging up on the Relax part and the Mom part, and annoying little mental sidequests involve "there's actually no objectively right answer so you don't have to worry about doing it 'right" and 'honestly you know you're kinda burned out just in general and have estate stuff and parenting stuff you need to try to do'. And there's also a 'there isn't anything really urgent happening that I can do - anything urgent is still waiting for other people, and everything else can wait.'
So long story short, I am taking a break/vacation, but on the work laptop because I do have a few small things that are urgent/important. Probably an hour's worth of work today and Thursday. It feels weird for the reasons above, but also, I've been in the 'what should i be doing now' state of affairs for a little while, so break = good thing.
My break coincides with Dan's staycation - it was too hot at first to do a long hike, but he did a few short ones including an overnight last night. Plus he didn't want to leave us. Aw.
Mercury the cat is explaining that he is cute and loves me. He's staring at me and making biscuits on my arm.
---
Now that i've explained why i have time off - and also feel a lot calmer today than i did on thurs, fri, or monday - now i can say what we've been up to since Thursday!
Almost nothing! :). Just kidding - I did have some days with a lot of skyrim, bob's burgers, reading.
Friday, took Meg to the mall an hour away and did a GREAT job just window-shopping except for candy and drinks, Saturday did a family trip to the butterfly garden an hour away, Monday we went to the science museum. Sunday there was a tornado /t-storm warning all day so we stayed home (and did a Lot of Nothing). Online shopping in limited quantities, cleaning in exrremely limited quantities. I was really hoping to do a beach day but the best weather for that is today and I have a dentist appointment at 2.
Meg has a good proposal - alternate Do Nothing days with Do Something days.
I can probably make that work.
I think Ty is on board with it as well, cutie pie that he is. He enjoyed the butterfly garden but did not like Meg's overwhelm attack and just wanted her to feel better. (She'd already been in A Mood which is why we attempted to go somewhere in the first place. But the whole thing was fun anyway.). AND got Ty to join us for the science center -- meg had a small overwhelm but got over it. (Our favorite things there are the Bubbles zone, the air zone -pneumatic switches! tubes that you can put puffballs in! - light, and turbulence - a spinning orb, and stuff like that. They also have a few great outdoors things like fountains with ping pong balls you can play in and set up dams and pipes and stuff, an echo tunnel, whisper tubes, and we didn't go to the fairy grove this time.) One of us accidentally pocketed something in the gift shop, but we realized it, and we returned it, no big deal. No panics involved.
Last - we stayed up late watching Back to the Future last night - dan and meg had been discussing time travel and i guess she had a lot of ideas that dan was like 'oh! they talk about that in the movie!' Unfortunately Dan was out in some kind of tent somewhere on the Appalachian Trail last night but the kids and I watched it and enjoyed it. Yay!
I discovered this on June 20th :) with lots of 'wait a minute' and 'is this right' and checking with HR and payroll and biz administrator and my boss. I acknowledged that honestly I would prefer to have some time off but that I do have 'a few' things to do. (lots of mental uncertainty abounds about the 'right thing' and how much I could be doing) However, realizing that any extra work time isn't actually paid for in advance by the grant and has to be added in separately, which is an annoying process. Probably the dollar amount doesn't matter during that process anyway.
So lots of different parts of my brain are fighting about this - the Responsibility part, the Career part, the Don't Be Lazy part are ganging up on the Relax part and the Mom part, and annoying little mental sidequests involve "there's actually no objectively right answer so you don't have to worry about doing it 'right" and 'honestly you know you're kinda burned out just in general and have estate stuff and parenting stuff you need to try to do'. And there's also a 'there isn't anything really urgent happening that I can do - anything urgent is still waiting for other people, and everything else can wait.'
So long story short, I am taking a break/vacation, but on the work laptop because I do have a few small things that are urgent/important. Probably an hour's worth of work today and Thursday. It feels weird for the reasons above, but also, I've been in the 'what should i be doing now' state of affairs for a little while, so break = good thing.
My break coincides with Dan's staycation - it was too hot at first to do a long hike, but he did a few short ones including an overnight last night. Plus he didn't want to leave us. Aw.
Mercury the cat is explaining that he is cute and loves me. He's staring at me and making biscuits on my arm.
---
Now that i've explained why i have time off - and also feel a lot calmer today than i did on thurs, fri, or monday - now i can say what we've been up to since Thursday!
Almost nothing! :). Just kidding - I did have some days with a lot of skyrim, bob's burgers, reading.
Friday, took Meg to the mall an hour away and did a GREAT job just window-shopping except for candy and drinks, Saturday did a family trip to the butterfly garden an hour away, Monday we went to the science museum. Sunday there was a tornado /t-storm warning all day so we stayed home (and did a Lot of Nothing). Online shopping in limited quantities, cleaning in exrremely limited quantities. I was really hoping to do a beach day but the best weather for that is today and I have a dentist appointment at 2.
Meg has a good proposal - alternate Do Nothing days with Do Something days.
I can probably make that work.
I think Ty is on board with it as well, cutie pie that he is. He enjoyed the butterfly garden but did not like Meg's overwhelm attack and just wanted her to feel better. (She'd already been in A Mood which is why we attempted to go somewhere in the first place. But the whole thing was fun anyway.). AND got Ty to join us for the science center -- meg had a small overwhelm but got over it. (Our favorite things there are the Bubbles zone, the air zone -pneumatic switches! tubes that you can put puffballs in! - light, and turbulence - a spinning orb, and stuff like that. They also have a few great outdoors things like fountains with ping pong balls you can play in and set up dams and pipes and stuff, an echo tunnel, whisper tubes, and we didn't go to the fairy grove this time.) One of us accidentally pocketed something in the gift shop, but we realized it, and we returned it, no big deal. No panics involved.
Last - we stayed up late watching Back to the Future last night - dan and meg had been discussing time travel and i guess she had a lot of ideas that dan was like 'oh! they talk about that in the movie!' Unfortunately Dan was out in some kind of tent somewhere on the Appalachian Trail last night but the kids and I watched it and enjoyed it. Yay!