Vacation Over...

As I count down the final, precious, sixteen hours left of my beloved vacation, a bit of sadness and reflection is clouding my vision. What a time I have had! This vacation period has been the LONGEST I have been away from my job during the past 7 years...minus a few relapse periods of MS that kept me down and in bed for several weeks at a time! But those days DON'T COUNT!

Let's recap, shall we? Or maybe I should say you ARE going to recap with me! LOL

My true vacation began on Wednesday, July 11th. Unfortunately, I had to return to work for a half day of "mandatory" staff meeting on Thursday...so really my vacation didn't begin until the 13th. But as you may recall (and I have not forgotten!), I got juiced up with NOVANTRONE on Friday the 13th...and it was NOT a good time as Dr. She Who Will Not Be Named flew off in her vacationing space ship and left me high and dry without the proper medication orders. I spent the next week feeling the ill effects of the Novantrone, so technically speaking, my vacation REALLY didn't start until Saturday, July 21st. LOL

But since Saturday, I have celebrated a 43rd birthday, was taken out to eat at a fine restaurant by Saint EB, received lovely birthday gifts, gone for a bike ride, hiked at Mount Rainier, was taken to the local reservation casino by Big Al (did I forget to mention my gambling habits this past week?!?) for the day, built a small wall in my yard, hauled about a half ton of broken concrete from my front yard to the back, went to the horse races as a birthday present with dear "T" (I seem to have gambled quite a bit this week!) which I have never been to before, and hiked a 7.4 mile gut-busting trail! Yeah...I may have REALLY only had a week of true vacation, but I jammed it full of good times.

And now...now, I count down the final hours/minutes before I return to the "grind" of my employment. I am hoping I can remain calm and rested for a bit and ease my way back into the fast-moving pace of crisis intervention (which IS my job!), but it is doubtful this will be the case. This week at work brings multiple changes on many levels and I am not looking forward to any of these changes. I will be returning to a new supervisor and coordinator recently hired, saying good-bye to my previous "Big Boss Lady", who I have grown to respect, moving down the street to a new office building with all new surroundings/phones/procedures, etc., and trying to incorporate a new change in the law I represent. Just thinking about all of these changes is quite overwhelming!

I will try my darnest to get around to all y'alls blogs this week, but it might be a few days in between before I get there...my vacation from work has both saved me and ruined me! So, until we meet again in comments (either here or on YOUR blog), wish me luck...I'm goin' in...LOL