Party Like It’s 1988

Todd took this photo of me on Friday evening, July 14th.  Tomorrow will be the start of something beautiful.  Something exciting.  Something I haven’t had the opportunity to experience since 1988.  Tomorrow is the start of my two month leave of absence from work. 

The last time I had a two month break without school or work (or both at the same time, during college and grad school) was 1988.  To say that I am excited is an understatement.

So how did we get to this point?  Years of hard work and stress.  I am an intrinsically motivated person, so I always do my best and do a good job in anything I do.  I can’t help it.  But that also leads to a ton of pressure on myself.  Couple that with deadline after deadline at work, and piles of work dumped on me the last 1.5 years.  Well, I just needed a break.  I celebrated 24 years of working in my finance/accounting job on June 28th.  I have never taken more than a week off at a time during those 24 years.  I have always worked the month-end, quarter-end, and year-end grind.  I’ve never taken those days between Christmas and New Year off, because it was always year-end closing time for accounting & finance people.  After all this time of working, I just needed a longer break to totally disconnect from work, recharge, reboot, and reset myself.  My hope is that I will be well-rested and be excited to go back to work again. 

My company doesn’t have a sabbatical benefit, so my two months of leave is unpaid.  But I am at a point in my life where I have managed to save up some money, so I am able to take this time off without financial hardship.  Todd and I don’t have kids, and we have lived below our means for years.  We have purposefully done this so that we don’t both feel the pressure of having to work.  We’ve always told each other that in reality only one of us has to work, so if one of us ever really feel that we dislike our job a lot, we could just leave it.  I don’t dislike my job so much that I want to completely leave it.  I just want a break!  I am calling this my “Summatical”, a combination of “Summer Sabbatical”! 

Of course, my Type A personality means that I will actually have to make an effort to relax.  I’m serious.  I do have a running list of things I would like to do while I am on this two month leave.  I will share it soon.  But for now, I’m gonna party like it’s 1988.