10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Vacation!

Well, it’s 10:30 pm, about time to start packing, so instead I’ll do an LJ post. That sounds like me.

This week, despite the hectic pace that is always a pre-vacation work norm, I’ve felt very happy and loved by my likewise hectic friends. I can feel our determination, and I just can’t wait to see how far we get this year with our goals!

My mind is repeating a tedious “to do” list over and over which I’m trying to ignore for the moment without entirely forgetting, lest we come back to the foul stench of rotten vegetables in the fridge. Ewww. ANYWHO…

Spoke with Mom today, who still needs some pointers on how to entice people to come visit her. How’d you get the time off work for this vacation? she asked me. I took a couple vacation days. Of course, that led her to reply, but you could have taken those days off to come see me! She then goes on to remember the date of my actual next promised visit, Mother’s Day weekend, and says, You’re bringing James with you, right? Because we have things planned for you both to help do while you’re here. Have you ever put down flooring? Wheeeee!

So, for May… JT family reunion, the always fun but potentially diet-busting weekend of drinking, chatting and playing rook. Then Mother’s Day weekend, where we apparently will be doing manual labor to put down flooring for the dining, living, hallway, stairs and foyer of mom’s house. THEN, thankfully, we’re being reckless and going to Mazatlan for the first vacation with my frewtnut niece since Hawaii! And, I guess, officially the first one together as adults where I just didn’t visit wherever she lived and she was working half the time. Joy of joys, am I looking forward to that now. Already got my eye on the Newport News strapless bathing suit I’m going to buy, in an attempt to avoid tan lines this year so as not to redneck up Magoo’s wedding.

After Mexico, I think we’re actually home for a while, thank goodness. June, July, August, September… sure we’ve got some birthdays and an anniversary in there, but no big events. Plenty of time for hanging with local peeps, walking all over Atlanta, and enjoying the hot southern summer on the tennis courts.

Speaking of which, how is it that children don’t seem to understand how much it would hurt them if I whacked them upside their head with my tennis racquet? It is titanium. 10 minutes on the court today, and suddenly we were surrounded by children who were apparently confined within the fenced area of the courts by their parents until dinner time. They ran and played, kicked balls, rode their bike, la la la la being children, I guess, all over the empty court and all around us on the other court. Merrily riding their bike over to help fetch stray tennis balls… causing me to stop short going for shots because I’m about to run into a bike… rolling their soccer ball across the court, but… near the net, of course, so as to not interrupt us, but JESUS… between them and the two guys have a hootenanny trying to get the garbage dumpster to compact, I was so tense I was ready for a flight of bees to just come take me away. I give up! Damnit, though, I was sweating, and I wasn’t leaving that court without at least 30 minutes, but afterwards I walked home with visions of shoving tennis racquets up little asses if it ever happened again. PEOPLE, control your children. Of course, they may not listen to you anymore than they listen to the total strangers they are bugging the shit out of.

/incoherent, punctuation-free rambling

All right… it’s REALLY time to at least think about packing. And that to-do list.