I may need a vacation from my vacation..., Part One

Vacation. I'm obsessed with it. I think it's a mental vacation for me to think about and plan for an actual vacation, so I've been spending too much time thinking about what we'll do this summer.

First, I was on cruises. Cruises are great because there is something for everyone to do every minute of the day (like my kids) and other family members are free to relax by the pool with a book and a Purple Bird of West Green Bananas cocktail.  Yes, I realize that this sounds like I'm planning a vacation where we don't have to spend every second of every day together, and yes, I will leave that off my Mom of the Year application. Also, the all inclusive makes it much easier to make and stick to a budget. Perfect for a cheap frugal person like me.

So, cruise. Bahamas or Jamaica?  Grand Cayman or Belize?  Honduras?

Definitely no Mexico - we went there last year. On that trip we learned our kids are NOT adventurous. One of them who shall not be named (*ahem* Tucker *ahem*) is just flat out not a risk taker in any way. He likes routine. The same. No surprises. For this reason, I've determined that we need to put the boys into situations where they feel uncomfortable so they can be be comfortable with their discomfort. Travel is the perfect way to do this! Makes perfect sense, right?  I thought so.

When we couldn't decide on a cruise, Trey suggested we just wait to book something and see if we can get a deal at the last minute. We really don't have a preference on where to go, so let's decide not to decide. I was totally on board with this. But, of course, I continued to obsess on vacations.

I discovered that cruises out of Florida are cheap  very inexpensive. In fact, we could fly to Florida and go on a cruise to the Bahamas and spend about the same amount as a cruise from Galveston or New Orleans. The boys have never been on a plane before, so there's the added adventure I'm wanting. Strangely, Keaton has decided that his dream vacation is to go to Miami (I have no idea why, and I don't think he does either). So this is my next plan -- fly to Miami, cruise to the Bahamas. One of the boys who shall not be named (*ahem Tucker ahem*) might need a kiddie xanax, but we'll cross that runway when we get to it.

But wait!  If we're going to fly, we may as well look into all inclusive resorts and forgo the cruise altogether. This has all the same benefits of a cruise (activities, food and drink included), without the ship. It may actually be less expensive according to my calculations. THIS is our plan!

But the boys don't have passports. They don't have them because their mother is cheap frugal and doesn't want to spend the money on them. I have, however, finally come to realize that once they have passports, we are free to choose any of the vacation options previously listed for years to come.

We got out of school early today, so off to the post office we went. And thus began the Great Passport Debacle of 2013.

Book #11: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

I really enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl, and I needed a book to fill the gap until Khaled Hosseini's new book came out, so I read The White Queen.

It was fine. Not great. Fine.

It was good enough that I wanted to finish it, but boring enough that I paid seventeen bucks (thanks to an Amazon gift card from my friend Sally) to download the audio version and finish it in the car when I took a one day road trip to to Rice. Mainly so I could start the Hosseini book.

The End.

Book #10: Bossypants by Tina Fey

I love this book both for its hilarity and its wisdom. Tina Fey discusses what it's like to be a woman in charge in the workplace, along with the fact that being a woman in charge in the workplace is something we would even have a discussion about (there aren't any books about being a man in charge in the workplace, to my knowledge). She's also a mother and wife and regular normal daughter of Republicans. I want to have a margarita with her.

Some gems from the book:
"'Bloft' is an adjective I just made up that means 'completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' I have been 'blorft' for the past seven years."

"Politics and prostitution have to be the only jobs where inexperience is considered a virtue. In what other profession would you brag about not knowing stuff? 'I'm not one of those fancy Harvard heart surgeons. I'm just an unlicensed plumber with a dream and I'd like to cut your chest open.' The crowd cheers."

Note that there are plenty of f-bombs, and Fey was a writer for SNL so she's not afraid of offending people with comedy. As one who is not easily offended and often reads at gymnastics practice and baseball games, I laughed out loud...a lot...in public...like a crazy person.

This book is especially recommended when you want to read something but are feeling too blorft to pick up something too heavy.