Couch 94 - Blowtorches R' Us

Ok my inner 15 year old is jumping up and down on the couch right about now ! t just emailed me back saying okay, that she's waiting to change planes and will text me when she gets checked into her hotel. yay!

How exciting! I'm so glad, Art!

You could be an honorary usanian cept for you speaka da english too good! When i left work, they were tweaking max vacations down from 5 weeks to 3 weeks.

Just as long as youre sure it isnt your inner Tom Cruise!!

I am so stressed.. my Grandmother is coming into town tomorrow for a couple of days. She is the prying, judging kind of grandmother. She likes to ask if I am on birth control, how in the world could I have gained so much weight, are you sure your son is really allergic to peanuts/tree nuts/eggs/bees? How do you really know your son is autistic? Gah! Now, I am off to clean the living room, as well as shampooing the carpet.. you know, just to give her less to pick about!

Ugh, I'm sorry Healed

Just remind yourself its only for a few days. Anyone can make it through a few days.

Would you like to borrow my pet raccoon for the weekend? That will give her plenty to talk about without picking on you

...yeah, to me that is just weird. Going down from what is the legally stipulated minimum holiday - only very young people get as little as five weeks' holiday, if they have a full-time job. Certain 65-year-old psychotherapists take rather more time off than that. But I won't whine about that again.

It's kind of funny that experts here say that you need at least four weeks of consecutive holidays in order to unwind properly. I just want to shake those experts and tell them to wake up and look at the rest of the world. Other people don't get that much, and they seem to be in a much better shape than we are....

Art - yay! I hope you'll have a good visit.
healed, that sounds very stressful.

Last post before I stop spamming the couch: I have three subjects to bring up with T tomorrow. I hope I manage to at least tell him about them, because it's things that have been on my mind for a while but I've been too embarrassed to mention them. (What to do during his holiday is one of them.)

Healed - I always go the opposite way in terms of cleaning- if I know someone is going to be like that - I leave the living room the way it is - they can either help clean it or it gives them something I find neutral to let them ***** at me about so they stay away from the things I care about. I found it never helped to clean for my mother - she was going to redo it regardless - so I eventually just let her. It kept her busy and I was not as frazzled from frantic attempts to clean that were going to fail regardless.

I like time off but...If I had four consecutive weeks off I think it would take me a few months just to get back into the swing of work again. 2 weeks( a year not consecutive) seems like plenty to me. My job is exciting. I'd have to spend way too much money to make 4 weeks of vacation not boring

I kind of freak out at the end of semesters when facing a couple of months of mostly unscheduled time. I love have a flexible schedule - but one reason I keep my private practice is because I need something other than blowtorching things to occupy myself.

For me, summer is when I get to do research. Teaching eats into my research time during the semesters. The most difficult bit is H's vacation, but he is only taking three weeks this summer.

My cousin whose house was flooded last weekend posted this today:

PUTTING IT ALL INTO PERSPECTIVE! Yesterday as we finished the second day of demolition at our house, we were sitting outside in the shade just taking a few moments to relax and rest weary bodies. We looked down towards the river and there was a man walking across our property, not a friend or a neighbor or anyone we recognized. Who the heck was he? I got up and as I walked toward him, starting shouting "Excuse me, hello", we then realized there were several others coming, where did these people come from? When they saw & heard me shouting they called back that they were a 12 person search team looking for the missing and that there was another team on the other side of the river! Wow! That just stopped me in my tracks, offered them something to drink but they said no, thank you and never stopped looking as they walked. I'm thinking having to replace a few walls is small, so many others have paid a great higher price. So many have offered up prayers for my husband & I, to those folks I hope you understand that I am sending all of your prayers and our own on to those that are missing and their families! God bless them and those searching!

LOVE this idea, and why didn't I ever think of it???? Is it a requirement of the Couch that you must have at least one judgmental family member? To anyone who is lacking, I can loan you some of mine!!

Wait. Family members can be nonjudgmental?? (Actually, my niece and nephews have never been judgmental or disparaging of me. So I guess it is possible.)

Lolagrace, thanks for that. Some people are really up against it tonight, and every night.
I am on a roller coaster today, hope it stops soon cos I want to get off!
There's no such thing as a non judgemental family member, it's like there's no such thing as a free lunch. If you think you've got one you just missed the catch

Arghh, and I want to change my mood thing and it won't let me!
Don't think I've ever felt less motivated in my life

ok that was funny!!! No, it's definitely Little Miss 15! So I just now escaped from work, heard from t, and we're meeting in 2 hours! More later....

Yes, things like this put life into perspective. My nephew took off a few days from work, loaded up his tractor and headed up to the flood area. He finished helping my cousin and has moved on into other areas helping who he can along the way. The pictures he's posting of what he is seeing are devastating.

If I had four consecutive weeks off.... it would be great at first, but I'd probably go stir-crazy and want to go back to work before it was up. Unless of course I won a lottery and could afford to travel. Then four weeks would not be enough. ha! dream on, art, dream on!

I have about 10 weeks off every summer. I enjoy the rest, but I'm usually pretty stir crazy before long. We find ways to keep amused though. We can't really afford to do much traveling, but we go swimming and locally touristy things to stave off the boredom.

That's the problem...it SOUNDS good but....money. fortunately I have a pet sitter who loves our raccoon and baby sits for a fraction of what she ought to with 4 dogs , a cat, a coon, 15 ducks, two parrots, and a reef aquarium to care for. .