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May 27, 2003 Pre-Vacation Swivet This entry follows no logical sense of order whatsoever. Just letting you know, so you don't expect it. Calvin is out of town this week, up north on a job. At least he's only two hours away by car, and not in another state. Still, though, it throws me off balance when he's away. Well, at least this will give Marie and I a chance to shop for his Father's Day presents. And maybe go bowling. And the cat can sleep with me at night without the threat of getting catapulted (no pun intended) off the bed. Speaking of Oz, I'm weirdly worried about how he's going to react to all of our travelling during the summer. He's my baby, follows me around everywhere, snuggles with me where he scoffs at Calvin and Marie, greets me at the door when I come home from work, and smashes himself up against me no matter where I'm sitting or laying, no matter how much more room on the couch or bed there is. We're planning on leaving him home alone for the 10 days we'll be in Hawaii (the dogs are going to Calvin's mom's), with Heather popping in on him once or twice to see how he's doing, make sure he still has food, and ensure he hasn't dumped over his water. I'll be gone for a week with Marie to Maine in early July, although Calvin will be home to hold down the fort. And then we're all off again late July on a four day camping trip - taking the dogs, leaving Oz. So, probably stupidly, I'm worried that Ozzy won't love me as much at the end of all of my time away - that he won't have the same bond with me anymore. Isn't this an incredibly stupid thing to be worried about? A better thing to worry about would be the amount of destruction Oz very well might enact on the house, being left alone for so long while we're in Hawaii. I think I'll ask Calvin's mom if she'd be willing to take him along with the dogs. Clearly, I am to be mocked. I want to learn how to quilt, and I want to learn how to dry flowers and make beautiful and delicate arrangements that I can gift people with and have them gasp in awe of my talent. I want to make wonderfully brilliant scrap books of all the things I'm doing this summer; treasures to cherish for our entire lives and pass down respectfully to future generations. I want to capture every single moment, and write such incredible entries this summer - complete with stunning photographs awesome in their uniqueness - that I finally get nominated for a freakin' Diarist Award. Clearly, I am quite full of myself. This Saturday we'll be two weeks away exactly from leaving for Hawaii. I've been trying to tan a bit in preparation for it. Calvin and I have taken to laying out on the patio next to the hot tub. The hot tub is set for the low 90's, which after laying in the direct sun in 100+ degree heat (damn state), provides a very refreshing dip when we can't stand the heat anymore. Since I shower after sunning, I submerge everything including my head in the water. The first time I did this, and then went inside to shower, I was astonished at my reflection in the mirror. I look decidedly dog-like with my hair wet and plastered to my head. Rat-like, even. With my Irish heritage betraying me with all the freakin' FRECKLES suddenly peppering my face. And so I'm, of course, obsessed about this. We're doing a lot of water-based activities in Hawaii! How will I look in our vacation pictures! How can I expect to keep Calvin's attention on *me* when there will be so many superior bathing beauties! (Side story: Calvin's notorious for taking pictures of good looking women while on vacation. I've seen the pictures of his honeymoon with his ex wife - many T-n-A shots, a few of X(f) looking pissed and glaring into the lense. He's done it on our vacations, too - though only one or two, here and there. Which cracks me up, instead of pissing me off, so close your e-mail clients.) I mean, really! They make swimsuit calendars specifically for Hawaii!!! Plus, I look bad in hats!!! Clearly, I am insane. I'm undecided about how I should pay my bills during my vacation. I have Quicken set up on my work laptop, and I pay all but three of my bills on-line (the landscaper, the truck payment, and the utilities bill - all of which are unavailable for on-line payment, the bastids). I don't have the ability to hook my laptop up to an Internet connection at home (oh, I suppose I could figure out how to, but I'm lazy), so the question remains: Do I load Quicken onto the home PC, and transfer the database of transactions over from my laptop? Or do I leave it on the laptop and run the laptop and PC simultaneously while paying bills - the laptop to record transactions in Quicken's register, and the PC to conduct the actual payments? Clearly, there is no limit to my analness (analocity?). Other than the generalized and constant worry about money management, the nagging thought that I'm going to forget to do something in prep for our vacations, the anticipation of some unfun family politics when I go home to Maine, the guilt that I'm letting us spend way too much money going out to eat when I should be cooking at home, the normal concern for Michael and Lilly (and I just KNOW the next time they'll be able to come home for a visit is over the 4th of July - when Marie and I are leaving on the 5th for Maine. Dammit. They haven't mentioned anything about a visit yet, though.), and the last-ditch energy dump into work to make sure everything is ready for my two-month absence, it looks like I'm ready to go. Clearly, the swivet I spin myself into before a vacation is one of the main constants in my life. Three days, people. Friday is my last day at work, and half of that is a cookout at a co-worker's house, starting at 1:00. Celebrate good times. Come on.

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