mama I'm comin' home

Well I am just about giddy with anticipation. Next week is my vacation, and I'll be trading the stifling 106 degree Texas heat for the stifling 96 degree Kentucky heat. I rarely get to see my friends and family back home, so I usually coerce my husband into driving me there while I'm on vacation from work. I take a lot of pride in my career and I enjoy telling people all about what I do for a living, but there are several drawbacks to being in the jewelry industry. The most difficult this is the fact that we are busiest during the holiday season, so we are working overtime while the rest of the world spends time with their loved ones (and not so loved ones...ha). If I wanted a break from work during Christmas or Thanksgiving, it would be a permanant one. The other crap thing is the fact that I only have two weeks of vacation for the entire year. I'll get a third week after being with the company for five years. Sheesh. That's still two years away for me.

Jonathan, on the other hand, is a public school music teacher. He will usually go home to visit his folks a couple of times a year while I stick around here and "make the donuts". I have no problem with this; "me" time is often hard to come by. But by the time my vacay rolls around, he's already been home and wants to go on a trip somewhere else. I just want to spend some time with the folks and my sister. So I feel a little guilty about vetoing his much-desired trips to Washington state or Wyoming (he's my little nature boy).

But I married a kind and understanding man, so we will be pressing east to Kentucky sometime Monday morning. Those who know me well know that I can't do much of anything without worrying or stressing about it to some degree. I'm already fretting about how I'm going to spend my precious little time. Five or six days there is such a small amount of time when I want to see my parents, sister, grandparents, and my in-laws. Yes my friends, you read that right: my in-laws. I consider myself unusually blessed to want to see Jonathan's folks and sister almost as much as I do my own. I know that I am most certainly in the minority on this one. Maybe I'll tell you all why they're so great in a future blog. Mmmmm. Hopefully that won't deter any of you from continuing on with me here.

For those of you who either a) have never had the pleasure of visiting Kentucky or b) don't know anyone from there, let me clear up some common misconceptions. We do wear shoes. I'm friggin' tired and just got home from work so I am comfortable in my bare feet at the moment; but if i am going to be going anywhere beyond my property lines, I am always properly and sometimes fashionably, shoed. Thanks for asking. Also, you will not be able to check my family tree and discover my husband on any branch other than the one next to my name. He ain't my daddy or my cousin last time I checked. I think I knew one chick in college who actually admitted to kissing her cousin, but that's the closest thing to inbreeding that I know about. So spread the gospel, okay? And don't fret. We do indeed have internet access, even out in the boonies. You won't have to go a whole week without reading my daily take on life. Yeah, I know you were all worried, but I'm not going anywhere.