great escape

Being technically considered an adult (out of school, real job, blah blah) has major perks.  Paychecks, no homework, and trading parents for the freedom of distant landlords.  There are also some pitfalls.  Like knocking on wood as I blindly choose my company's cheapest health benefits every year.  Or when that seemingly awesome paycheck disappears every first of the month (and I'm rethinking the whole parents vs distant landlords thing). 

But worse than all the copays and car inspections, is the fact that there is no summer break.  NO SUMMER BREAK!  PTO does not count.  If anything, accruing those few measly hours of PTO is just salt in the grown-up wound.  Summer used to be my favorite season, but now that I work in DC, summer just means that I'm drenched in sweat by the time I get to my windowless office (be thankful that I didn't take this imagery any further). 

Before we all think too hard about my pit stains or the summer-vacation-less lives that lie ahead of us and sink into a deep depression, let's talk about the bright side.  Trust me, there is a big one.

I do not subscribe to the "too much of a good thing is a bad thing" philosophy.  If there's a good thing out there I want as much as I can have.  But honestly, when I had three months off every year, I rarely did anything that great with it.  I slept.  I ate a lot of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  I got a few good sunburns that mostly turned into tans. But now that vacations are so few and far between, I really savor them.  A beautiful three day weekend at the beach with my best friends is a gold nugget in this monotonous muggy DC summer.  And that's exactly where I'm headed....

love and SPF (hey, maybe I am kind of an adult),
AB