gotta get away...

My vacation starts in less than 24 hours- we leave tomorrow morning to go to the beach. As usual, I procastinated and didn't get the laundry done in time to get all the packing done last night. But, I'm going on vacation! Yea! I can sleep late (in my life, 7:00 is late.) I don't have to go to meetings! I can sit around in my sloppy clothes all day long if I want! But, I have to keep the kids occupied. DH will be going out one day to golf. I'll probably hit the outlet stores on one day. Just being at the beach, regardless of whether I actually go on the beach is a vacation for me- I'm not at work, I'm not doing laundry, I'm not cooking dinner. I can read a book or take a walk or whatever. DH likes to go on the beach, though, and in the water, which means watching the kids pretty closely (I don't trust DS1 enough to let him play alone- getting engrossed in a novel may mean that he's halfway to Delaware before I notice.) I think I tend to put too much pressure on myself to "relax" on vacation every year. I don't have any outlets through the year the way DH does- he's goes biking with friends and does his band gigs, but I realized that I don't have any of that. I sometimes go out for a happy hour with some work people. Every few months (well, OK, I've done two since January) I do a scrapbook event with my Creative Memories unit. Nic and I do a few charity walks each year. But if I add the cumulative time I've spent doing "me" stuff, it's pretty pathetic. So here's my grand plan: my March moms message board has a handful of ladies up and down the east coast- Lisa is in Florida, Denise and Susie and Rhonda are in North Carolina, Joanne's in New Jersey and Lesley's in New York. So, I ought to plan a chick-weekend in DC! It's central, we can get a hotel that's close to stuff. Hell, we don't even have to leave the hotel- every place I've ever seen has a bar and restaurant, and just getting to linger over dinner and drinks is a vacation when you've got toddlers. Maybe we could all go dancing, which I haven't since right before I got pregnant with DD. So, after my grand girls' weekend blowout, I need to find some more real life friends, and get my Mommy-self out of the house for something more exciting than a trip to Target. Wish me luck.