Everyone takes a vacation to somewhere during the summer. It's just a given. When summer gets here, you take some time off and go somewhere. This is especially true for Minnesotans because, well, it's the only nice time of the year. From October to April the weather is usually cold, wet, overcast, and dreary. However, when May hits you get a nice stretch of about 5 months where you can actually enjoy the outdoors without having to wear multiple layers of clothes. During this time, we Minnesotans get the urge to move around and go somewhere. My family is no different.
On Monday we tried to figure out what we're going to do about vacation this year. We have reservations at a camping resort we are members of for August 9th through the 15th. Unfortunately, this is a really bad time for vacation this year. It would have been nice to go earlier, but my mom couldn't get off of work any other week than the one she did. It might not be possible for Kristin, Randy, or myself to go this year.
Kristin has to be back in St. Cloud by the 11th so someone has to take her. That's right in the middle of our vacation, and it's obvious that I would have to be the one to take her home. I really wish that it would work out for us both to go on vacation, but it's looking somewhat bleak. I could take her home early and then go on vacation, but it would be really nice if she would come with.
Randy, on the other hand, doesn't really have an excuse for missing vacation--he just doesn't want to be out there that long. He might come out there for the beginning of vacation and then leave early. Woot. That's real awesome. (note sarcasm) It just seems so weird coming from him because he used to give me hell if I ever even thought of missing a family outing, activity, or holiday. Now when the tables are turned he doesn't seem to care. I wouldn't mind him missing vacation if he had to work or had college orientation or something like that, but just not wanting to go because you'd rather do something else is a pretty lame excuse.
So what's going to happen for our vacation this year? Will it just be my parents and Ryan going? Will Randy go at all? Maybe for a little bit? Will Kristin and myself get to go with? I don't know, but we really have to get this crap figured out soon.
While thinking about our vacation plans, I had an odd thought dawn on me. When you're on vacation, you always dread the day you'll have to go back home and return to the grind. You don't want vacation to end and you sure as heck don't want to go back to work, but you know that it is inevitable so you just try to deal with it. One day it'll just happen and you'll have to go back to work.
It seems that most people feel the same way about death. You know that it's coming and there is nothing you can do about it so you just deal with it. So what if our time here is only a vacation from some other terrible place that we don't want to return to? Maybe it doesn't even have to be a terrible place, as some people don't mind their jobs, but it could just be a place that's not nearly as enjoyable as the vacation that is our life.
The reason I am thinking this way is that my feeling of dread when the end of a vacation approaches is pretty much the same feeling I have when I think about death. Coincidence? More than likely, but the thought that maybe this is as good as it gets is sort of disconcerting. This would, however, help to explain my extreme fear of death. Why would I want this vacation on earth to end?
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