I’m here for the vacations

I think people need to sign a legally binding document committing them to return the winning ticket if they decide to continue working after they hit the lottery jackpot. What a crock. Why waste your money on lottery tickets if you love your job so much?

It’s not that I hate my job. I’ve just got better things to do. The only reason I keep going back to work every day is that I’ve gotten used to the luxury of a roof over my head and food in my belly. Kinda hard to feed my habit without a paycheck.

Vacations are good because they give you a break from work. They also give you a different perspective on your routine by virtue of the fact you break your routine when you go on vacation. A vacation gives you an idea of how you’d like to spend your time if you didn’t have to work.

I just got back from a six-day visit to my hometown in the Midwest, where my mom, sister, brother and nephews live. While certain daily rituals are hard to break, like fumbling for that first cup of coffee every morning, others are hard to stick to. For example, I wouldn’t dream of going to work without my morning shower. It’s a different story for me when I’m on vacation — how early I shower depends on what the day’s agenda holds. Running errands with Mom on a sticky summer day when I’ll be sitting in a warm car (and banking on not running into any old friends from school), I’ll save my shower for when we’ve returned home.

Hanging out with my mom or my sister or brother or nephews instead of dragging myself into the office can be delightfully disorienting. It’s Wednesday mid-morning and I’ll think, Here I am shopping at K-Mart with Mom (not our favorite shopping haunt) but hey, I’m not at work, either. Part of me gets irritated when I like to think I’m playing hooky somewhere fun and other people apparently have the same idea or simply don’t have jobs. A couple of times I snuck in some mid-afternoon video poker at the local casino. What? Other people playing video poker in the middle of a weekday? What the hell?

Not everything I did on this vacation is what I would describe as fun. My brother was preparing to launch his sidewalk lunch cart business at a local riverside park. I spent the better part of one day running errands with him and giving him my opinion on this condiment or setup versus that or this flavor of soda over another. Although where we come from, it’s pop — not soda or soft drink. Which is also what I used to call my dad sometimes — Pop.

I’m always down when I return home from a vacation. The things that cheer me up are uploading vacation pictures and thinking of alternatives to break the daily grind. I might shake it up with a weekend afternoon to a nearby resort town or a solo movie instead of trying to arrange a time with friends. Nothing major but something a little different. Who knows? Maybe the next time I walk by a sidewalk hot dog vendor, I’ll buy a dog instead of turning my nose up in feigned disgust.