Almost Summertime!

The trip went fine. It was business. The presentations were well received. We had a lot of people talk to us at the trade show. The bed was comfy in the hotel room. It wasn't a great trip. But it was work.

Yesterday we went to a family reunion/birthday party. It was quite fun. We saw our nephew, he's 21. He was trying to get into the Coast Guard. He wasn't accepted due to a vision problem. But in the meantime he got a great job that he likes, he's able to save money, and he's going back to college at least part-time in the fall. That was his goal all along, to get a degree in engineering. He's so much happier and optimistic than when we saw him in January. He's such a good kid, I am so glad things are going his way.

I am vowing to get my life together. Not let work push me around as much. Get organized and relaxed. Live again. You guys have to stay on me. Step one is to stop using my personal computer for work. I have a work computer. I don't like it. But if I don't work on my personal computer, I'll control my work hours a lot more. Here's the plan:

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. My first paid holiday in 12 years. I'm not working.

Tuesday, I'll finish up some stuff for work and start moving all my files into one spot.

Wednesday through Friday I am taking vacation days, my first paid vacation days in 12 years! We are going to Springfield, IL to see the Lincoln sites. I'm not taking any computer with (but I'll borrow Mr. Incredible's to check personal e-mail).

Saturday/Sunday: I'll start getting the desk cleared off where I can keep my work computer set up and transfer files and notes to the work computer (which I should have been doing all along). Then no more work on my easy to access, I'm on all the time personal computer. I'll have to make a conscious effort to "go to work" and that should stop me from this practically on-call 24-7 nonsense I've let myself get into.

I know, I should have done it years ago. But when I was paid hourly and could get overtime, the more I worked the better. Now I'm salary. No more overtime. I'm supposed to be able to work shorter weeks all summer to make up for the extra hours I put in all winter/spring. We'll see. I think this is a huge step for me towards taking back my life.

In other news, I still haven't read most of your blogs yet, but as they are in my reader on my easy to access, I'm on all the time computer, I expect that will change within the next week!

We've had a rainy, stormy long weekend so far. It looks like that is changing too and we are in for sunny skies tomorrow. We are getting up early and going to Mr. I's new office (which I still haven't seen) to watch the town parade from his windows. I am looking forward to it!