Preparing for a vacation is stressful and by most accounts, people are more than ready FOR a vacation from all that goes into preparing FOR a vacation. Getting ready for my recent vacation was no exception.
First, I had to make sure I could leave work. Monday through Friday, I have the great privilege to be behind a microphone and talk. For a storyteller, it is the perfect place to be, in a roll-y chair engaging in conversation but, making the decision to pack a suitcase and go away, meant someone else needed to take on that job and getting ready for that took some doing.
About a month ago, two amazing women with extensive broadcast backgrounds answered the call and began to shadow my days and sit alongside me to see exactly what it is that I do on a daily basis. I am pleased and humbled that both of them, independently, gasped at the scope of the actual J.O.B. For the uninitiated, I get to babble about music, the weather (then record forecasts nightly, then three times on Friday for the weekend), announce what’s going on in traffic (“…every ten minutes” reviewing it from multiple sources that deliver it in code, then post that info. to the station’s social media in less than 120 characters) and interview guests – but, I also get to be the master timekeeper to assure that every second of every minute in every hour is accounted for, making certain that all on-air guests are recorded (audio and visual) for posterity. [Oh, and if I can keep a smile on my face and goodness in my heart, it’s a bonus.]
Knowing that work was going to be just fine without me, I was prepared to leave the roll-y chair and mic in good hands.
So, while I thought I was ready for vacation, the universe knew that I wasn’t completely prepared yet FOR vacation.
In addition to my radio J.O.B. there is a lot of other business that I attend to as an actress, voice-over producer/artist, vocalist and writer. [My To Do List has multiple media platforms on it and this year, I’m happy to say, every single one of them has a check-mark.] If it wasn’t for one of my dearest friends who is assisting me in all of these areas, I could/would/should not go away on vacation – but, with her help the ducks appeared to be more or less quietly aligned for a week and I thought I was okay to head out for vacation.
Except: There are other heartbeats involved.
My children are no longer children (at 23 and 19 years old and out of the house, at the moment), but I needed to find someone to take care of the four-legged fur-babies. I stressed quite a bit about this, before a lovely young woman from my beautiful Family Rose Trellis (mine is not the traditional tree – and my book No Family Tree, available on Amazon.com, tells that story) stepped up for the job and it seemed like we were leaving the cat (Olive) and dog (Fozzy) in really good hands. But, I’d forgotten how busy my hands would be preparing FOR vacation.
It was then that the dog… was slightly electrocuted.
The night before our trip, I logged a lot of miles walking in and out of rooms tending to last minute laundry, packing and re-packing (trying to puzzle out a week of clothing into a carry on bag), putting away grocery supplies for our house/pet-sitting guest and tidying up. As it got later and later, I realized I needed to sit at my desk to answer pages and pages of emails and then type out instructions for the care and keeping of Olive and Fozzy. Not wanting to ignore our fuzzy loved ones, I brought them into the office – keeping the canine and feline energies apart, but together, so they didn’t feel neglected (but also wouldn’t fight). Olive was content on the desktop, quietly purring but still managing to glare at Fozzy, who seemed content, until … for some reason (maybe to show the cat who has the real power in the household), decided my laptop cord required chewing.
I am incredibly happy to report that everything turned out okay, despite the (literal) shocking turn of events the night before vacation. But, it took being curled up into a ball in the closet (me, not the animals) before I could admit that I truly was ready FOR vacation.
Outside of the signs warning of crocodiles, the vacation was marvelous and definitely one — I was more than ready FOR.
xo – t.
“A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” – Earl Wilson
“When all else fails, take a vacation.” – Betty Williams
“Laughter is an instant vacation.” – Milton Berle