I'm in favor of adpoting European vacation policies....

I know I've been MIA and that's because I took last week off. That's right, I took some vacation time and it was well-deserved, dammit! What did I do? Nothing. No, really, I didn't do anything. Not anything grand or vacation-like, anyway. I slept in, hung out with the boyfriend and the animals I'm pet-sitting, read a little, went out to eat a lot, took care of some things I haven't had time to take care of (i.e. parking tickets that were holding up my tag renewal), and generally tried not to do or think about anything too stressful. While I thoroughly enjoyed my week off, I've decided (as I do every year) that the US is entirely too stuck on working as much as possible. I vote, again, that we adopt Europe's vacation policy. We should all get 30+ vacation days a year (no, this will not count sick and/or personal days) and we should be required to take every single day. I'm totally serious about this. I'm lucky in that for the past 4 years and even now in my new job, I have some built-in vacation weeks (Christmas break, spring break), but even with those I would go crazy without additional vacation days (preferably several in a row) to rest and relax. And you won't find me with extra days at the end of the fiscal year. Uh-uh, I take them ALL. Someone once told me that was because I'm not as driven or motivated as those who don't take vacation days, but I strongly disagree with that. I don't hate working, and I take quite a bit of pride in the work I do, and I work hard, but I also fully believe that one's life should not revolve around work, and if I want to take time to do other things I enjoy or to be with people who are important to me, I'll do it without a second thought. That is my rant for today.

I had two encounters to note about last week:

#1: I don't know what happened to the mean and nasty parking fine employees I usually run into, but my payment experiences at both the MD Transit Administration and the Baltimore City parking offices were so pleasant, I started to wonder if I had entered a parallel parking fine universe. Usually I have to brace myself for downright rude people who tend to curse and flame at you no matter what you say. It's true I have a low tolerance for this kind of thing, but I always try to go in with a positive attitude. Never have I had such kind, courteous people helping me. I left both of those places in an even better mood than when I went in. Amazing.

#2: Actually, I decided not to get into #2, because it's after 6:00 and I need to go brave rush hour traffic and head home. Happy Monday!