Vaca!!! (-tion, that is.)

So you ever just NEED to get away...from work, from people, from your home, from life? Just a small escape, long enough so you can breath, but yet short enough that you miss home.

va·ca·tion (vā-kā'shən) n. A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation, especially one with pay granted to an employee.

Yes friends...I'm going on vacation...finally. This will be my first vacation since working at Nortel and I have to say...I deserve it. My last vacation was a month long when I first moved to Dallas before I started my new job, and God only knows I needed to rest up before I started working the ridiculous hours that I do. So needless to say...I'm pretty stoked. I don't know who thought of vacation in the first place, but I need to give them a hug.

I'm finding lately, that as much as I am the "social butterfly" that everyone knows me to be....I love to be alone. Sometimes ...ok most of the time.....no Laura let's get honest.... 99.9% of the time I go-go-go and do-do-do that I tend to loose myself in people, events, and God only knows what else. I forget what I want, I forget that I need to slow down, chill-out, and just sit and listen to the Lord and figure out what He wants me doing. Don't think I'm exaggerating either, Monday through Sunday I'm usually booked solid. If I'm not at church, I'm out to dinner, or attending a meeting, or at some random event or concert, or running errands, or trying to get my life in order. Sometimes being busy is good...other times...ehhh not so much.

There are night's when I'm out and about, I love being where I am and in the moment with whoever I'm with; but if it's one of those nights where I just need some R&R (also known as "Me-Time,") and I really stop and think about what I want to do...I want to shout aloud...."I WANT TO GO HOME, AND DRESS LIKE A SLOB, AND WEAR MY GLASSES, AND NO MAKE-UP, AND WORK OUT, AND READ A BOOK, AND EAT JUNK FOOD, AND WATCH A DOCUMENTARY, AND WORK A SODOKU PUZZLE, AND FALL ASLEEP ON MY COUCH, AND GO TO BED AT 9:00 p.m.!!!" ....but alas...sometimes that just doesn't happen. And so even after a long day and night of hanging out with my wonderful friends...I come home and stay up late with myself just so I can do the things I want to do.

Tonight..specifically tonight I had planned to just chill..not even necessarily "Me-Time." I just wanted to chill, but then at the last minute a meeting plan changed and now of course I feel obligated to attend... and knowing me...I'll just leave work early and take care of what I need to get done (oil change, and other errands) and then I'll head BACK over to Southlake for the 3rd time (in the past 3 days) and won't get home until 10 p.m. and then I'll be even more tired than I expected to be just because I didn't go to bed till 2 last night....

Let's continue on through the rest of the week:

Tuesday I'll head to NRH to go to church just so I can chug my gas tank full of cash that I DON'T have, probably hang out and go to eat afterwards and get home around midnight or so...

Wednesday Dana comes in for dinner

Thursday....I'll pack and hopefully have a "Me-Night" :)

Friday I'll work from home and hopefully get some more packing done until 3 p.m. After I'm finished working I will then have a "proud friend moment" at DBU's graduation where I will see http://www.jonathangaspard.blogspot.com/ walk across the stage to receive his diploma and then probably go to catch the new Narnia movie (which I am stoked about)

Saturday, ooooo Saturday I will hopefully wrap up all of my packing and laundry and I will most likely, if not most definitely lay out by the pool allllllll afternoon :) oooo that makes me excited. Hehehe.

Sunday I will probably do a last minute check around the house and THEN ...OH YES and THEN at the 1 o'clock hour....I will be flying out of DFW to Phoenix, AZ to enjoy a week long of VACATION!!!! Oh bliss! Oh JOY! I can barely contain myself!

Now there's one thing I can tell you about myself...and sometimes I get in trouble for this, but when I go on vacation...I go on VACATION. I turn my phone off, don't check my e-mail, I do NOT communicate with the outside world. Now grant it, I am visiting family but even still...anyone else with whom is not standing in front of me...will not hear from me. Ok ok...so I know I'll end up Facebooking or MySpacing at some point in the week but other than that my plans for vacation include:

1. Sleeping

2. Reading

3. Staring at mountains

4. Attending my cousin's graduation

5. Musing my grandfather

6. Reading

7. Staring at the mountains

8. Maybe working on my tan

9. Staring at the mountains

10. Staring at the mountains

Yes...it's going to be a good time away. Thank God for vacation.

Website of the day: http://www.ducktravels.com/ If you've ever heard of a "Flat-Stanley" then this has the same concept. You get a rubber ducky and as you travel, you take pictures of your duck traveling around the world....I know...it's pretty lame, but it's actually pretty cool where these people travel to. Oh and here's a link for "Flat-Stanley" he's pretty cool too. http://www.flatstanley.com/