tangentwoman

Monday, January 19, 2009

Ahhhhhh....vacation....

A January vacation to a warm, sunny place is pretty much the best thing I can think of, and because of the Smelmooo's job, I get to take one pretty much every year. It's not a real vacation for him, and at first it wasn't so much for me, either -- the schmoozing, the small talk, the feeling that I have to be "on" all the time -- but I've sort of gotten over that. It's pretty much the same core group of people on the trip each year, and I've gotten to feel comfortable with them by now, so it's not really much of an effort to chitchat by the pool or over a delicious meal.

We went to Maui for about six days, and it was just heaven. Perfect weather (just one morning of rain, and no one cared, because it was during the Giants/Eagles game), the most gorgeous ocean, a waterslide at the hotel pool, amaaaaaaazing food (who knew that a super-fancy restaurant would serve complimentary cotton candy for a post-dessert treat?), and a couple of really fun excursions. We went whale-watching on a catamaran, which I loved (really, even if we hadn't seen any whales, I'd have loved just floating around in the sunshine for an afternoon), but my very favorite thing was watching the sunrise over Haleakala volcano and then biking down. Just gorgeous. And I think I'm now officially done with the bike-riding hang-ups that had plagued me for almost 10 years. So yay.

The Smelmooo is now in the thick of another business trip in San Diego, and I tagged along there for a couple of days, and I'm so glad I did. I'm not crazy about eight airplanes in 10 days, but on balance, it was totally worth it. And I don't even mind that I came home to snowy, cold weather (I actually feel pretty lucky -- coming home to low-30s weather is not so bad when it was 9 degrees or something last week). And, as usual, I'm so happy to be reunited with Tucker, who had a blast running around in the snow in the backyard and is now conked out on his pillow, probably for the rest of the day.

I'd been to San Diego as a kid, and I went for a whirlwind business trip a few years ago, but I hadn't done a proper tour. I wish I'd had one more day there, but in my short trip I was able to (1) eat Pinkberry for the first time (yum); (2) hang out in Coronado; (3) visit Balboa Park to see street performers, war protesters, and bible-thumpers, and to sort of climb a tree; (4) without even asking, get hooked up with a free pedicab ride from a total stranger (which I didn't accept, but still); (5) without even asking, get hooked up with a fridge for our hotel room; and (6) without even asking, get hooked up with a noise machine to drown out all the noise in the hotel room.

So all in all, a fantastic trip. I am one of those lucky people who can completely disengage from all things work-related the second I get on the plane for vacation, so that was nice, too. And now, I'm sort of ready to get back to it.

I'm sort of jealous of all the friends and colleagues I have who are going to the inauguration tomorrow, and I can't wait to hear their stories. It would be amazing to be a part of it, but I think I'll be happy to be watching it on TV in relative warmth and comfort. I'm hopeful, and I'm optimistic, and I'm excited for the promise of a new era. Here's hoping.