The Pragmatician

SHLEPPING and SWEATING

Vacation is supposed to be something you’re looking forward to, something you can't wait to have.
Yet I can't wait to be back from it.
People stress for weeks, if not months in advance, making plans, changing them, and then returning to the original plan, arguing and paying fortunes to get away.
If you ask me it's nothing less than some sort of illness that has ensnared almost everyone I know.
People seem to forget the three N's of vacation: No Alarm clock, No Stress and Need to Relax.
My ideal vacation would look like that: I'd move into my parent’s spacious apartment five blocks down, while they are away. And I'd do ,well, pretty much nothing, just unwind and enjoy the fact that I don't have to sit in front of a computer for 9 consecutive hours and taking orders all day long.

But the three N's are no longer a reality.
A) No Alarm clock: Forget it!
-Waking up early to catch a minyan before the flight leaves
-Waking up early before the breakfast room closes
-Waking up early 'cause the bus is leaving at 6:30 am to dodge traffic
Before I know its back to -Waking up early- to go to...Work

B) No Stress: In my dreams (if I get any sleep, with the mosquitoes and all)
-Three weeks of planning, booking, canceling, changing dates and using my lunch break to take care of all the aforementioned details.
-Packing, running, realizing passport has expired and flight is delayed
-Walking miles in huge airport, being stopped 51 times to show passport and boarding ticket, having foreign(clean???) hands rummage through private belongings in luggage. (Though I must admit they always show proper respect for my Tallis/Tefflin batel)

C) Need to Relax:” we didn't spend a fortune just to hang around the hotel"
-Daily trip, usually two or three hours driving (getting lost on the road not incl.)
-Reading a book only possible in the plane.
-Believe it or not my Ipod just crashed.
-Seeing you hard earned money spent on hangers, postcards and other useless souvenirs that won't be appreciated anyway...

But I'm being pragmatic about all this.
First I calmly suggested we stay on deck this year, the response was sheer laughter.

Accepting that my counter attack had backfired, I just smiled and am going to go ahead with this tiring and needless trip.
After all I’m the eccentric one. Which “normal” person would want to stay in the same city for the summer holidays?
It’s worse thinking about the fact that the only two weeks ‘till Sukkos, I could really relax if they would let me, is going to waste. When I come back I'll be exhausted from the long trip but the next day I’ll be back in front of my favourite flat-screen.I'll tell everyone how wonderful it was and how much we enjoyed it. I’ll smile before, during and (even brighter) after the trip.
If we're going to go, why spoil it for the others.
It's the pragmatic thing to do...is it also the right thing?