Sick Day!

Last weekend I was sick.

It hit me on Saturday night after supper and I started feeling better in the evening on Sunday. Nothing is a bigger waste than getting sick on the weekend. So I decided to store all of the sickness experience in my head and saved it up for use on a weekday.

When I went in to work on Monday I didn't mention to anyone that I had been sick on the weekend. Instead I kept it quiet and Thursday I called in sick. I basically applied the exact same scenario I had experienced on the weekend to Wednesday night and Thursday. When asked about it on Friday I could go into perfect detail about what happened to me. All I had to do was switch the days.

Yesterday turned out to be the best sick day ever!

First of all it was Thanksgiving in the US. I'm a big fan of the American Thanksgiving holiday and wish we could share it (in fact I called in sick last year for US Thanksgiving too). US holidays are strange for us in Canada. Everything on TV suggests that there is a holiday celebration going on but it's business as usual. It feels like we're missing out.

I caught some of the Macy's parade first thing in the morning and then drove the kids to school. This is the first time I've had a day off since all of the girls have been in school. In the past when I'd been home there was always at least one kids around. Not only was I getting a day off of work, but Jules and I were getting a morning together without the kids!

So after I ditched the kids, Jules and I went out to do some Christmas shopping together. I can't explain how nice it was to go out shopping, with just the two of us. We never get to go out by ourselves. We always have the kids with us and as a result we usually get in and out as fast as possible because someone, or everyone, is usually acting up.

It was so relaxing to just walk around and look at stuff. Even driving around was nice. No kids bickering in the backseats!

Since it was still pretty early and a weekday the store wasn't even busy. We could take as long as we wanted to look at stuff. No people in our way, no noise, no sense of urgency. I guess that must be what it's like for normal people to go shopping. It's been so long that I'd forgotten what it was like! We hit a couple of stores, paid some bills and managed to get quite a bit of Christmas shopping done.

The last time I remember a shopping experience like that was when we lived in BC and Grace was still a baby. 9 years is too long to wait for a little "us" time.

We will definitely have to have more of that in the future!

At lunch time I went and picked up #3 from school and got her home just in time to see Santa at the end of the Macy's parade. We had some lunch and lounged around. I did a little laundry. Me and #3 even had a quick nap on the couch before it was time to get the other kids from school. All in all it was a great sick day.

I used to take random vacation days that coincided with when the kids had a Friday or Monday off, but now I think I'll plan them for days when the kids are in school.

The next time I take a day off we'll have to go out for breakfast. I don't even know when the last time we went out for breakfast was. I'd say it was probably Smitty's in Sidney around in early 1998.

All of a sudden days off are becoming a lot more attractive.