When I was a kid, I cried every year at the end of my birthday because after months of anticipation, the big day was over, not to be repeated for a whole 'nother year.
Now, President's Day is by no means the only school holiday of the year. And, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, it was just an extended weekend rather than a full week off this year. We didn't even go on some big, fancy vacation. (We barely WENT anywhere--the farthest was Westchester to go grocery shopping). And, yet, I woke up today with that "end of birthday" feeling. Despite the short vacation being not particularly earth-shattering, I was here for it. Not the first time over the last year that I have been, but perhaps the last. As each vacation passes, I realize that by the next, I might be working, no longer able to share the sleeping late and figuring out what to do and playing hours of video games with my kids. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss the sound of the video games already. (I'm sure the kids would be happy to fill that void for me this weekend!). For that very brief time, I allowed myself to be "on vacation" with them. Not completely free of responsibility or digital connection, but free of running constantly, free of guilt about scheduling every minute of my time. And it was great.
As time goes on, there won't necessarily be vacations we can share. It's not easy matching up the schedules of so many people, and, work being work, I won't necessarily be able to choose my schedule. So, I'm glad we had these few days, video games and all. Perhaps they will inspire me to make parts of our weekends little mini-vacations, complete with a little sleeping late, a little shirking responsibility, a little just stopping and spending some time together. Because even if you cry when the weekend is over, you don't have to wait a whole year for one to come again.
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