Despite my good intentions to be mature and resist resentment, I can not fully stop myself from being just the teeniest, tiniest bit jealous that JG gets to have a summer vacation. I fully respect all of the work and aggravation he has throughout the school year, and I would never be able to stand it. By the time summer comes, I know that he needs the break, and I don’t begrudge him the time. It’s not even that JG sits around doing nothing, as the newly-organized the shed, a homemade set of ladder golf, and neatly trimmed trees will testify. Plus, he’s teaching himself Java, taking a graduate class, fitting in a few rounds of golf, and managing to have dinner on the table when I’m not experimenting with a new recipe. It’s just that — wah, I want a long vacation, too! As the resident night owl, I hate being the first one up in the morning, and when I get home from work, JG is all ready for chit-chat and banter, but I want to curl up on the couch and zone out as I grumble softly to myself about how “it must be nice to have so much time.”
Nevertheless, I think I’ve been more this summer than in the past, and I think a lot of that comes from budgeting in some long weekends and random days off. By the end of July, I’ll only have worked one full week in the month, and even better, I have always had something to anticipate, from the beach to Theme Park Day to the second annual weekends spent at Mimi’s and with my sister. For not having a summer vacation, I think that’s pretty good. Of course, once September comes, I go through a dry spell of vacation days until Thanksgiving, but at least JG and I are in it together, and I am more at ease when the cool weather comes and that new-school-year bustle hits.
Anyway! Today, I’m taking the day off again, and I wonder if my boss is getting suspicious of all the time off forms she’s been approving. No matter, I’ve accrued the time (and tracked it on a trusty spreadsheet), so I have no worries. Instead, I’m looking forward to a nice, long weekend.
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when joe worked at a school, i was always *so* jealous of all his time off. it was a jewish school, so in addition to the regular breaks (although he was admin so he didn’t get summers off), he got off a bunch of extra time during the year for every.single.jewish.holiday. they were holidays that i’d never even heard of! now, he works for my company so we have the same vacation time. haha.
Ooh there’s nothing better than a day where you and your hubs can play “hooky” even if you’re both SUPPOSED to be off. I don’t know why it’s so much more fun to hang out and run around doing great things on a weekday, but IT IS.
Have a great long weekend!
I’m jealous of teachers too with their summers off. And then I remember they are teachers and I’m fine working the whole year and not teaching kids.
I think JG may be the only teacher I know who doesn’t work a summer job! Good for him. And good for you for taking some time for yourself as well. And bad for me for saying, “good for you,” twice in this comment. I hate when people say that.
The thing about the summers off is that most teachers aren’t really off. Most teachers still do not make enough money (despite holding Master’s degrees) to live comfortably in the areas where they work. Hence having to work retail alongside the high school kids all summer. Sorry, it’s a soapbox issue for me.
We all deserve a nice long weekend every once in a while. Enjoy!
Back when I was a kid, I thought it must be impossible to work all the way through the summer. I wonder when that changed exactly, but now it’s odd to think of what it would be like with months of nothing in particular to do.
I am both thrilled not to work all summer and also a little ashamed I didn’t get a summer job to make some extra cash like I thought I would. But there really is nothing better than waking up to a whole lot of nothingness stretching before you…
I hope you enjoy your fakation days!
I took yesterday off, and it was such a nice break from the daily routine! With Tim teaching in a district that starts the year early (less than 2 weeks until school starts!) and having spent all summer up until this week working hard on his thesis, I feel like this summer has completely passed us by. We’ve only been on 2 hikes, and school’s about to start already! I know we can still hike on weekends after school starts, but it just feels like we’re running out of time, and fast.
I am so glad our electronic timecard system tracks accrued vacation days for us. I have been saving up vacation days for our honeymoon and so by now the balance is starting to look pretty nice.
Also, my first year out of college was my year of mourning summer break. By now, I am more or less over it. But then, I am not living with a teacher.
I would have a really hard time with that too. When Bart was working from home for a while, it was really hard for me to go to work and so annoying to come home to him taking a nap.
I miss having summers off so much. It was always so nice to have those couple months to look forward to after going insane for most of the year.
Ah. I feel your pain, although, I did take some emergency vacay this past Friday myself because I was in danger of losing it. Hung out at GD’s pool - so refreshing! Um…which brings me to - ONLY FOUR MORE DAYS UNTIL THE SHOPPING (and EATING) EXTRAVEGANZA!!! Ahem. Having test-drove the pool pass, I can safely say that we will have ourselves some cool/refreshing respite if we are a little tired from “chopping”. Just look forward to your next day(s) off, conserve your energy and stretch out your arms for the many bags of loot that we may or may not acquire.
I know! Even though I’m going back to school, I am expected to do a full-time internship all summer. So I don’t exactly get the benefits of a student lifestyle. Boo!
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