Where This Leaves Me
It’s now official: Randy and I are going away for Labor Day Weekend. There was a great deal on flights (using frequent flyer miles) to Toronto. Only 17,500 miles per person for direct flights. We’re going to head out next Friday and come back Tuesday morning (and go straight to work). I found what appears to be a decent hotel just outside the Gay Village and overlooking Allan Gardens (whatever that is). The subway is just over two blocks away, but the streetcar stops right at the corner.
And for this 4+ day trip, I’m only having to use one vacation day. Which is a good thing because I’ve developed this obsession with maintaining a decent number of vacation days in the event of an emergency (if I get fired or quit, it gets paid out to me in my final check). My pool of days is actually at the lowest it’s been in a few years: after Ptown this coming weekend and Toronto next weekend, I’ll have 18.92 days remaining.
I know, I know – that’s a damn good number of days to have. I guess I still recall my childhood when my parents only got 2 weeks per year…even after decades with the same employer. And I remember my first jobs when I had 1 week for the first year and 2 weeks after that.
It’s the same thing with savings. My parents never had a pot to piss in (okay, we could afford a pot, but it leaked) so savings was a fantasy for us, not a reality. My first decade after college was the same. Between Boston rents and college loans and all of the other every day expenses, I never had much to fall back on. I fortunately never lived paycheck-to-paycheck (I was able to maintain at least $1,000 at all times), but the amount in savings never increased. It was my nest egg and I tried to never touch it.
Now that I’m in my, gasp, late 30’s I finally have an actual nest egg, thanks to having purchased and sold former condos. It’s a nice feeling to know that I’m covered if something happens. I may tap into it on the rare occasion, but always keep it above a certain level and replenish what I took out whenver I can.
And that’s how I treat my vacation days, I guess. I’m willing to use them (I think vacation time is extremely important and am disgusted at how little this country offers) but I also want to keep a bank of 15-20 days at any given time…just in case. In some ways, I suppose it was beneficial for me to grow up lower-middle class and to start off my career with jobs that offered pitiful benefits. Not only does it make me appreciate the amazing benefits I have now (and the ability to put a bit into savings each check), but it makes me not take these things for granted, either.
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If you see what looks like a SWAT team being followed by tv cameras, that’s filming for “Flashpoint” and I demand that you take lots of pictures of the hot bald guy for me.