Summer vacation rewind

Well, it is time for me to look back upon my post from June 10th about Summer Vacation and take stock of what I did. Here goes.

"What I did on my summer vacation”, by Mad Scientist

I went to a conference in San Juan where I did the opposite of relax. Although true to my plan of leaving my laptop at home, bringing my husband, and paying an exorbitant amount of money to have hair literally ripped from my nether regions, this trip was not a vacation. The resort was lovely and we had a great deal of fun, but I was “ON”. As soon as we got home, I got sick and found myself couch-ridden for a week. And while that was a perfect opportunity for me to spend a good chunk of time focusing on the small grant application I was writing, I felt cheated. So with a fist shaking in the air at the injustice of it all, I booked another trip. I was going to get me some Caribbean turquoise water and swim-up bar action come hell or high water. And I did. We went to Jamaica where I drank champagne like it was my job. Come to think of it, I could do it full-time if given the proper grant funding.

Overall, I managed to take work down a notch as I had hoped. I spent most of July and August on my back deck, writing, writing, and writing. Not the blog, obviously, that was completely relegated to the bottom of my “to do” pile. Instead I wrote study protocols and papers. It was lovely, and the Sony Vaio made it all possible. Thank you, American taxpayers!

I certainly tried to drink as much white wine as I could, despite my anal retentive and regimented lifestyle. I did not go on a bender by any stretch of the imagination, but if I was with friends, and thankfully I did a good amount of socializing, I put summer in my mouth and gulped it down faster than if I had found an oasis in the scorching heat of the desert.

Most every other goal I had set for myself was met with failure. I still can do only about 8 chin-ups, I read maybe 2 books all summer and one of those was last week in Jamaica, and my long runs have not exceeded 10 miles. Oops. Even over-achievers fail. C’est la vie.

Having said all that, it was an excellent summer. Now bring on the fall.