Life is Too Short
Photo belongs to Secrets Silversands Riviera Cancun.
Mike and I were planning on a huge trip to Europe next year. After Mike had been at his new job for over a year and I would have lots of vacation time saved up after all of my surgeries and sick days I have had this year. The more I thought about it, the less I could convince myself that we should wait to go somewhere. Although I will owe work a lifetime worth of vacation and sick time after my surgery (which I actually accrue fairly quickly, when you have been at a job for over 5 years the vacation benefits really do stand out). The biggest issue was if Mike could get time off of work. He spoke with his boss and was able to get time off so I have been nonstop “vacation vacation vacation” yapping for the last few days, I think I may be driving Mike crazy.
We are going to wait and go in November so I have had time to recover from radiation and have at least a month to recover from vacation before my surgery. I am not going to list specific vacation dates as announcing when you are out of town on the innerwebs is usually not a good idea, but if you figure it out my house will be house sat and the sitter will be armed and super scary (so be scared! HA!).
The problem was where to go? Not enough time to go to Europe and I am not up for a red eye flight anywhere (I can’t sleep on planes). A lot of people choose to go to Hawaii after cancer treatment, but Hawaii just wasn’t super appealing to me. We were going to go on a cruise, but the more I looked into it, our timing would probably put us on a very crowded ship and I wanted to spend more time relaxing than waiting in long lines (although we will still go on a cruise someday, more preferably when it is a bit more off season).
I have spent the whole weekend trying to decide. I have never been to Mexico so I ended up choosing Mexico after all of the research, I was stick a bit on “all-inclusive” after the cruise research. I chose a resort where the people shared pictures of the food just as much as pictures of the beach (thank you fellow travelors!). Mike and I tend to spend a pretty dime on food when we travel, so not having to think or worry about finding great food is pretty cool. I also chose an adults only resort (so that I am the only one peeing in the pool, because adults don’t do that right?).
I still wish money grew on trees, but we have been able to save some money over the past few months (after I depleted our vacation fund to finish the second bathroom as I anticipated needing my own bathroom space with chemo and surgeries in front of me before and after photos here). The problem with booking a vacation is that you figure you deserve “just a little bit more” and I kept upgrading and downgrading and upgrading – I signed up for the normal room (which is still a jacuzzi suite, muahahahahaha), but entered a contest for the upgrade *fingers crossed*. Oh well, money in a savings account or memories forever, today I choose memories. Mike and I need to get out of our normal cancer treatment routine and have a real vacation (after our pretend vacation left me in a full body rash – yes, my life is what slapstick comedies are made of).
So, as I go through my final week of radiation, all I will be thinking about is white sandy beaches and getting myself bikini ready (I just bought a new one that should hopefully cover up my scars, I can’t really try it on until the radiation redness calms down). I have temporarily stopped working out again. Getting my butt to the hospital before 7:30 AM every day sort of zaps my energy by the time I get home from work, but now I am enthused to get my butt back on that elliptical. Either way, OMG I am going on vacation!!!.
