“Vacation is all I’ve ever wanted, vacation . . . . ” We used to sing this Go-Gos song in college. What did we know about needing a vacation? We LIVED vacation (especially if you saw my GPA).
Today, at this time, in this place, at this hour, I start my vacation. You may think that I am mocking President Obama by paraphrasing his words and using them to describe my vacation. But I am not. I am giddy with excitement and anticipation, even though I know that, on Monday, I will get calls from the office and have to negotiate a work-out. Even though I know we are spending a week at the beach, sullied with a hurricane’s detritus. Even though I know that we are in the mother of all recessions (sorry, Ben Bernanke, but we are only technically on the cusp of possibly exiting the recession) and what am I doing spending money on a beach house? It is an achievement to make it through the Great Recession (at least so far) and live to enjoy a vacation. A greedy little pleasure that seems a necessary escape from the world’s currently bleak landscape.
I don’t care if it rains. I just don’t. I will be happy to be huddled on the couch with my partner and our son, watching Charlotte’s Web, which we’ve seen innumerable times and I cry every time. And it’s about a pig. And I am Jewish. And there is no such thing as a kosher pig. Let’s let THAT urban legend die.
My sister (who, you might have read, is my hero) and her husband can’t join us for the weekend because she is busy being a superhero to a former colleague in need. I wish my sister and brother-in-law could come because it would make for a wonderful family tableau of our generation, except for the absence of my brother and his family. I don’t write often about him because we don’t have a day-to-day relationship, but he is a good man. I think we get along now better than before.
When we were kids, he used to tease me that I covered up my homework to keep him from copying (he is three years older). The truth was that I was scared he would catch a stupid mistake and tease me until I was in tears. It is interesting how these miscues carry through the years. I was appalled by something he said, only to realize that I didn’t understand the reference and that I had jumped to a conclusion based on my life experience. He has a totally different life experience now and an entirely different frame of reference than do I. As I get older, I want more than ever to bridge that gap. His kids are wonderful and, well, I wish his wife would like us New York family branch members more. I wish I knew what makes her uncomfortable. Well, we ARE loud, opinionated, bossy, sardonic, neurotic, urban dwellers, so I get her point. But I just wish that we could get past any bad first steps and forge a meaningful bond.
Anyway, vacation and family. Two fabulous word and fabulous together. Am I blessed or what?
