Well, today was technically the last day of my 3 week vacation. I know I shouldn’t be whining just for the fact that I got to be on paid vacation for 3 weeks but I will because I’m so down about the fact that I have to go back to work soon. I had a great vacation but in the end it was just the fact that for so many days when I went to bed I didn’t have to worry about waking up and going to work the next day that made it so good. I just plain don't like to work.

Friday, 10/12 was my last day of work and I followed my usual weekend routine of doing pretty much nothing, which is always good. Then on Monday I got on a plane (that I almost missed) and went to Amsterdam, arriving Tuesday morning and leaving early afternoon on 10/24. (See my other blog for info on Amsterdam!) Upon returning home and adjusting to the time change I switched back into weekend mode until it was the weekend and time to go to Brewtopia, a beer convention, with my friend. When you go in they give you a small tasting glass which you can take to any of the almost 100 table set up by different micro-brewers. There are several hundred beers you can sample and I did my best to try as many of them in the 4 hour time period we were allotted. I actually only had a little over 3 hours because of the line to get in and train delays. The line kind of pissed me off because I arrived late but with pre-purchased tickets, I thought the point of pre-purchasing was so you don’t have to wait in a huge line, but I didn’t let that spoil getting hammered.

Then I sat around for a few more days until Tuesday, 10/30 (Getting alarmingly close to the end of the vacation at this point!), I hopped on a train to NYC for Whiskyfest. Whiskyfest is pretty much the same thing as Brewtopia but it’s a lot more upscale and with whiskey instead of beer. I liked it a lot more than Brewtopia because I enjoy bourbon a lot more than beer. It was great to actually talk to people who knew about whiskey, there were even a few master distillers there. I talked a few of the tables into giving me some free glasses. :) I also met the guy in charge of my favorite bourbon, Old Rip Van Winkle, and his son. The son had arranged to buy an old bottle (it was distilled by the company his great grandfather and grandfather were president of at the time it was bottled, 1964) from me, I even got them to throw in a nice polo shirt with their brand logo on it! I hope I can get away with wearing it to work! (Ugh, work, :() It was weird, I was drinking straight bourbon for about 4 hours straight, trying to drink in moderation and stopping by the buffet occasionally (the food seemed fancy but there wasn’t really anything there that I wanted), and I didn’t really start to feel any real buzz or anything until it was just about over but as soon as I got out of the building it was as if every drink I had the entire night just hit me once. lol

Anyway, I just relaxed for the next few days and now we’re at today where I’m bitching about he fact that I have to go back to work. Maybe, just maybe, I win tonight’s lotto drawing and I can extend my vacation indefinitely. I’ve been wishing for it all day. lol