Vacation Jones

Wyatt and I had a shitty day Monday. You could say it was because he had to make four trips between a mechanic shop and Jiffy Lube to get his car inspection done, and then had to spend an hour in line to buy textbooks for his upcoming classes. You could say it was because I spent some time on the phone trying to straighten out something that was fucked up and I was unsuccessful, and so disheartened about it I didn't even try to straighten out some more fucked up shit on the phone, and felt bad about it. You could even say we've reached our capacity to withstand days of rain without getting Seasonal Affective Disorder.

But really I think was because our expectations were thwarted. We meant to go camping at Merchant's Millpond Sunday and be there until late Monday afternoon, but the weather didn't cooperate. It's a wonderful place to visit in the winter cold - no bugs, no snakes, and no people - but not when it's raining. Water falling into the canoe and getting your knees wet is bad feng shui. And we were tired like the old folks we've become.

So Monday became a catch up on chores day, which felt like a ripoff, especially since most of the catching up came so hard. Finally we sat down to dinner and I put in a video slide show my friend in Arkansas sent me. I didn't quite know what to expect. It turned out to be photos and a lengthy narrative of and about her vacation to Eureka Springs last summer. Images of lush countryside filled our eyeballs, along with picturesque old country downtown settings you'd like to prop back in a chair in, cool looking ponds and shaded, mysterious springs. Photos of restaurants they ate in and juicy descriptions of the food they ate and how good it was.

So it was kind of a vicarious mini-vacation, a consolation prize at the end of the day. I was tempted to get bitter with jealousy, but mostly I wanted to cheer my friend on and tell her to get down with her bad self. I've never before considered Arkansas a vacation destination but I'd love to go to Eureka Springs now.