So K's 50th birthday came and went. The boys are giving her the gift of letting her buy them dinner tonight, because No. 1 was working on the actual day. I sent her an email, but resisted the temptation to return the favor of a 6 page letter about me Me ME!! which is what she gifted me (lord I hate that particular verbing of a noun) back in Nov. I still feel somewhat pressed to respond, but I'm going to wait a bit longer.
So now I have to resolve all kinds of travel dilemmas. I'm scheduled for San Francisco in March for the PCA thing, then LA in May for Ivy's graduation celebration. I want to do the PCA show, as worried as I am about falling short in yet another academic environment, and I can't really miss the graduation. I got her into this, after all. And I'm interested in the SLA show in Seattle in June, but I doubt I can get the worktards to pay for it, in which case I'd have to decide whether it's worth the cost.
But all that means (probably) no LA trip for the birthday in a couple weeks, which is just as well, as I have a lot of work to do at home. And it complicates scheduling of a visit to Yahoo No. 2 in NYC, since he seems unlikely to drift back toward civilization anytime soon. I can likely deduct the cost of the NY trip, at least in part, but the timing sucks. SF and the graduation trip will be pretty cheap, thanks to essentially free lodging, so that's all good, but the time is a challenge.
I have plenty of vacation time -- more than 2 weeks in the bank now and that much more to accrue between now & the end of summer. I can probably afford it. It just feels like an overwhelming rush. Or more correctly, it feels like a lot of self-indulgence, and I'm struggling to get zen with any of that. In the absence of the solid week off for burning man, I've taken time off in two or at most three-day blocks. That should make me all eager for time off, right? Instead that prospect is feeling all opperssive & stuff.
My head is weird.