Daydreaming

[geekchick]

My goal last year was to use all my PTO and not carry any over, but that failed miserably. I have something close to four weeks of vacation and personal time this year that I'd like to use up, even after using the week that I carried over. I'm not sure that this year's going to go much better thanks to combinations of (lack of) money and deadlines, but I'm planning to give it a shot. To try and stave off my imminent mental breakdown thanks to a particularly stressful situation going on, I've been daydreaming about how I'd like to burn those vacation days assuming time and finances allowed. In no particular order:

• If I thought I'd actually get stuff done, I'd take a week off to clean out/up my house.


• Volunteering for a week at Best Friends animal sanctuary in Utah. Since I can't have a dog of my own, this would be a fabulous way to get my doggie fix (and kitties, and bunnies, and horses, and goats, and pigs, and birds) while also lending a hand to one of my favorite organizations.


• A vipassana retreat at the Insight Meditation Society. Can I survive a week of noble silence?


• A road trip, using Roadside America as a guidebook. Cheesy roadside attractions, woohoo!


• Festival season! Bumbershoot, Edmonton, Calgary (Chumbawamba acoustic, Great Big Sea, Neko Case, Leo Kottke, Ollabelle, Sarah Slean, Rufus Wainwright, Hawksley Workman), Cambridge (Oysterband, Bruce Cockburn), Blacksun Festival/ProjektFest, Folks Festival (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Peter Himmelman, The Ditty Bops, Catie Curtis, Guggenheim Grotto), Falcon Ridge (Dar Williams, Eddie from Ohio, John Gorka, Lowen & Navarro, Marshall Crenshaw), 50 Years of Stax benefit, FloydFest (DeVotchKa, North Mississippi All-Stars, Donna the Buffalo, The Duhks, Scythian), Tønder Festival (Levellers, Great Big Sea, Solas, Karan Casey Band), Nordic Roots Festival
  


• A week in London. Ditto Paris/Rome/Florence/Kyoto/Tokyo/St. Petersburg. And Cuba, if it wouldn't net me a big fine and a lot more hassle than I want to deal with.


• My long-delayed (we're talking like three years) trip to LA to meet folks.


• Portland, OR. If I can make myself leave Powell's, I'd offer to buy pdx42 a drink.


• A cruise (Alaska or Mediterranean). If I'm dreaming, I might as well go for a transatlantic crossing on the QE2.

Comments

[geminigirl]

You can do Cuba, without a fine.

[geekchick]

I don't think I fall into any of the categories that will get me a license to travel there. I know there were some tour companies that were trying to sneak around the travel restrictions by arguing that the tour fell under the "fully hosted" provision, but I'm not sure how successful they were.

[geminigirl]

Travel via Canada. My in laws have gone to Cuba on cruises, and when they've been with Americans, the Cuban Immigration control skips the passport stamp, and the American dollars are welcomed in Cuba.