Monday Night

So I've really been feeling the need to travel lately but a few things are getting in my way. Let's get them out of the way before I commence with the day-dreaming, ok?

• Childcare
• Dog care
• No vacation time accrued yet
• Affordability
• Decisions

Ok, forget all of that stuff. There are solutions to each point I've listed. I just really need to recharge. The last time I went on a real getaway was April of 2005. Rob and I took long weekend to Ocean City, MD and made Penny. It was nice. But returning from that short/long weekend, I was met with some kind of weird information. One) the dogs just need kenneling and not family to watch them and Two) I had just had a future career rug pulled out from under me. So whatever relaxation may have occured while we were gone, it was all negated by the realities of returning.

The next time I go anywhere, I want to come back to relative peace and quiet.

And don't even dare to think for a second that the past couple of years of back-and-forth to Florida even come close to real vacationing. Each one of those trips down to Florida was a fact finding mission filled with town and house hunting and heavy DECISIONS about major life changes. I mean, we may have gone to Disney or seen some interesting things. That's not what a vacation is about. We always came back exhausted, with more questions than answers.

And, please, don't suggest that my trips up to Jersey were vacations either. They were more like brief gasps of fresh air at the surface of my life in the fishbowl. I would hold out there, like holding my breath underwater, until I was ready to crack, order a round-trip ticket, and take a deep breath every time I came up. Evidently, it sustained me.

But really, crying on the airplane every couple of months at the ecstasy of landing in Newark and the horror of landing in Tampa and just wondering how much more I could take...well, that's not a vacation either.

So I think I need a vacation!

For real this time!

Of course I'll take the girls somewhere this summer when Sadie has off from school. I think even prior to that, I need to travel somewhere that is not part of a fact finding mission, or house hunting, something for myself. I need to go somewhere that is just for me.

It might be nice to go somewhere I've never been before. I don't really know that I want to rekindle old memories. This world is huge, but I can't come up with anything.

Dear Internet Friends, do you have any suggestion?