A few weeks ago I heard a student wish my boss a “happy vacation!”. In reply, he used almost the exact same words as the out-of-frame PI in the final panel of this cartoon:
(Linky)
The state of my email inbox proves that he wasn’t joking.
I hope all my NN friends are having a (relatively) work-free and relaxing summer! No vacation days for me until November, when a planned trip to New Zealand will hopefully make up for all these beautiful sunny days spent in an office while my husband gallivants about town recuperates from his own recent slave labour work schedule, and does his duty as a good host and cousin.
Early in June, I spent three days in a suburb of Washington DC.
.
.
.
Oh, wait, that was study section.
People thought I was crazy to go to England for a week and a half in February, but it was the only time I could take an extended vacation this year. The academic year for most of our students starts in late July or early August; my first two lectures in one major course are next Monday, and the first lab session is on Thursday.
Sometimes I have these futile fantasies about a vacation that lasts two weeks or more, or even about an extended staycation for a month or so. Wow, I could ride my horses or go kayak in one of the lakes or hike in a nearby state natural area every day. I could
defacealter several crappy old natural history books, or make a substantial entry in an art journal every day. Nah, it’ll have to wait until I can retire … whenever that may be. Heh.You’ll be OK in NZ, they haven’t got the internet connected down there yet ;)
I can’t take a proper summer vacation this year – same as last – since I was silly enough to insist on switching jobs again. However, people around me must be taking proper vacations – I can tell that I now work within a big European project by people saying in high-powered meetings
“we should talk about that after the summer break”…
Nope… no holidays for me because I already took 2 weeks in April, and right now I’m writing, writing, writing my thesis… though I’ll take an “extended” weekend to go to London for the Science Online 2009 of course!
Great cartoon btw! :-D
Kristi, the last holiday I had that was more than 4 days in length was in the UK at Christmas, and everyone got the norovirus. That was fun ;)
I get 4 weeks of vacation time a year, but it’s never enough. Kayaking and hiking for 2 weeks sounds like heaven. If we make it to NZ it’ll hopefully be for 3 weeks, which is unprecedented since our honeymoon 2 years ago (and only about 10 days of that was actually spent on “proper” holiday!) That was the year I worked every single bank/public holiday to make up the time… fun.
Darren, maybe the boss would like it there then! Although he’d probably just work from his iPhone.
Steffi, bad timing. I feel your pain. And Europe has the right idea about holidays, especially the French!
Maria, I feel your pain too. Good luck with the thesis writing, I hope it’s going well
@ Cath: Ugh, norovirus. That sounds totally Not Fun. I hope you get your 3 weeks in NZ; I’m sure there are loads of cool outdoor activities available there. Kayaking and hiking every day for 2 weeks would be heaven, I agree, and it would even be possible to do so locally without much travel. I’m planning to take a vacation day next Friday for a polocrosse play-day weekend near Austin; it’s a “moonlight madness” informal tournament, where we play on a lighted field between 10 PM and 2 AM, Friday and Saturday. When given an option for some time off, I usually choose outdoors + active, even if it’s triple-digit weather.
Best wishes for those managing new jobs or thesis-writing!
I am presently having this dilemma Cath. I am going on vacation next week, where I will have internet access to check my email, etc. But I cannot decide if I should bring my computer in case I need to do some actual work. I am trying not to do any for a solid week, but it’s proving difficult.
Caryn, don’t even tempt fate by taking your computer. Have a holiday.
Kristi, my husband is trying to talk me into bungee jumping, but I’d rather stick to kayaking and maybe some body boarding (I have terrible balance and would have no chance at proper surfing!)
Caryn, what Darren said – unless you have a major deadline, don’t take your laptop!
If there’s one thing for which you don’t need balance, it would be bungee jumping ;)
Indeed ;)
My biggest problem is that while I think I’d enjoy the jump once it was in progress, I don’t think I’ve got it in me to actually, ya know, jump into the void… maybe there’s a tandem option available and I can shut my eyes and let my husband do the jumping; his greater mass would give me no option but to follow!
Do it, it’s awesome, especially in NZ. You will be walking on air for days.
I highly recommend the option of having the rope slightly longer so you get a good dunking in the freezing river below. You know, you can always take up the option of having them push you to get started.
..ha..it’s a such an eerily true comic strip. i had a link to it sent to me by a friend just before i left for 2 weeks to China. not that i had any pressure to work while on vacation, but after coming back, there were times I kinda regretted not being in the lab. especially during some odd moments where I think the PI may have forgotten I was away…
and it’s been more than a week, but i’m still combing thru the bucket loads of emails I deemed as ‘non-priority’ while i was away with limited internet access.
ooh wow, i’m sure new zealand will make up for it, u’ll be just in time for the summer weather there in Nov. that’ll make everyone totally envious in vancouver by then.
Oh yes, the email inbox after a vacation… it’s usually a whole day (and whole kettle worth of tea) for me.
The vacation was cleverly timed to avoid the absolute worst time of year in Vancouver! November is miserable; it keeps getting darker and darker, Halloween and Thanksgiving are over, Christmas is still a long way away, it’s raining but you can’t ski yet… it’s the perfect time to escape to the Southern Hemisphere!
I hope all my NN friends are having a (relatively) work-free and relaxing summer
Thank you. We Editors take our Olympian Pleasures where we may.