Going on vacation is too much work!

I know I shouldn't complain. I know I'm very fortunate to be going on vacation at all this year - let alone for 7 days. I haven't taken a 7 day vaction in years.

It's thanks to the generosity of members of my extended family ( of the Famous Family Dinner Crowd) who have invited The Hub and I as well as my folks to stay with them at a fabulous beach house in Avalon, New Jersey. All they expect in return is that I cook a decent dinner one night and bring my own sheets and toilet paper! So it just doesn't get any better than that!!

And I know I'm going to have such a great time when I get there. When I get there I'll be able to not only relax but spend time with the people who mean so much to me, especially my niece and nephew who seem to be growing up ALARMINGLY fast.

The key thing is this: I'm not there yet. I have to get ready to get there. I think I have the problem with the dog sitter solved, and I do give thanks to Heaven for being able to get another large dog lover to look in on Winston.

But, I have to clean the house. For one thing, there's nothing worse than coming home from vacation to a dirty house. For another thing, I don't want the pet sitter to think we're untidy people even though we are. With all kinds of books and photographs and tools and ebay-ables and home decor projects in very stages of being done ( I primed an old magazine rack I found for $2.00 at a yard sale, in preperation to paint it and it turned PINK! what's up with that?!?!) a person can hardly walk around the place, except for in the kitchen where the wide open space shows off the perenially dirty floor, mosly from Winston slobbering on it.

I have to try on my bathing suit. And let me tell you, the trauma of that try on is a whole 'nother, "Ladies Only" blog entry!

I have to find the stuff I have to pack. Luckily, the beach umbrella I bought at another yard sale to replace the one that broke last year is out in the living room ( doesn't everybody keep a beach umbrella in the living room?) But the extra sheets, towels, hair junk...all that has to be rounded up from it's little hidey holes all over the house. And I have to do a load of laundry before I can even begin to pack clothes.

I think my problem with all of this is the "stuff factor". As much as I love - really, really LOVE the beach, I feel on some level that going there requires too much stuff. Of course, I think everything invloves too much stuff. And I get nervous about dealing with my stuff.

Packing is a dangerous occupation for me. It leads to episodes of "What the hell is this? Why do I have it, let alone need to take it with me? How could I have possibly been such a poor household manager as to have two whole bottles of lotion yet bought a third and bought sun screen over again when I have two bottles from last year? Is anybody going to notice if I wear the same jeans over and over again? And what's the deal with all this foot wear? I don't care about the over-casualization of America - I'm going to the beach and I just want to wear my fip flops everywhere!! Wah!"

And, of course, there's the guilt factor involved in that, no matter how lightly I pack, ( and The Hub has twice the amount of stuff as me on any trip - he being of the school of thought that "it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it") I still really honestly and truly NEED to take a lot of stuff to the beach.

It would be unthinkable for me to go to the beach with out an umbrella, sunscreen, hat, cover up, inhaler, epi-pen, and UVA blocking sunglasses. What with all of that, it's a wonder I go at all...but that's an example of God's sense of humor with regard to human nature: I have skin so fair you can see through it, I can't swim, but I love the beach more than any other place I've been in this world.

So, if I have to stock up on dog food for the pet sitter, get down in the dust bunnies under the bed to find the beach towels, and crawl under the eves of the roof in the burning heat to drag out the suitcases, I know when I'm at Avalon with my family, the water lapping my toes, the breeze blowing and the sun creating a beautiful shimmering light it will have all been worth it.