The Longest Day!

In the course of a year I get 10 days of vacation time. Usually I use 2 or 3 of those for Christmas, depending on what days of the week the stat holidays fall on, and I use up a couple during the dead zone between New Years and Easter when there are no holidays to be had (we're talking about Canada here so don't bother telling me about Martin Luther King day or Presidents day). The rest I save for summer holidays.

Today is my last day before I start my summer holidays!!!!

That's right as of 5:00pm today I'm free. Until July 24th that is.

Right now it is 2:30pm. Two and a half hours to go.

I've been counting down recently with the kids, who seem equally excited to start my holidays. "Only one more week of work!", "Only two more days!", "ONE MORE DAY TO GO!!!"

Plans? Oh yeah, I've got lots of plans.

Three days will be used to take our annual summer camping trip. I can officially call it an annual event now because this will be the third year in a row for camping. The first year was just me and Numbers One and Two so maybe it doesn't qualify as a 'family campout' but last year we got our first all-inclusive family campout under our collective belt. The beauty of the camping trip is that no matter what else happens with the rest of the week, I never come back to work feeling like I wasted my vacation doing nothing.

Highlights from last years campout include:

1. Packing up one car with two cars worth of gear
2. Setting up a constant barrier of mosquito coils
3. Coyotes
4. Raccoons in the garbage
5. Number Two falling end-over-end down a dune
6. Number Two loosing her first tooth
7. Satellite watching

I have many other plans for things I'd like to do with the upcoming week. These include carpet cleaning, wall painting, strawberry picking, fishing, biking, swimming, etc, etc, etc... These plans are more of a wish list. I'd like to do these things but don't have my heart set on them.

So here I sit watching the clock. It is now 3:00pm. Two more agonizing hours. At exactly 5:00pm a rare phenomenon will occur. Time will actually change speeds. It will increase from the deadly slow, waiting to start holidays pace to the breakneck pace at which time flies when you are on vacation. Make sure to check your watch at that time and you will see the second had speed up. I swear. It's true.

3:04. It's a little closer now. I can almost smell it.

Oops. 3:05!