Working Wives & Bachelorettes: Was I Even on Vacation?

When most people say they are going on vacation that usually means rest, relaxation, fun and quality time with family and friends. That’s at least what I expected when I decided to visit my grandparents, with my parents, in New Bern, NC. But vacation wasn’t exactly what I got.

I consider myself to be pretty lucky as I am fortunate enough to be in my thirties and still have my gram and pap on my mom’s side still alive and kicking. The only time I really get to spend time with them is when they come up here twice a year. In fact, I think the last time I was down there was about six years ago. So when my parent’s told me that they were going down for eight days over spring break, I figured I should really make the effort and go with them.

Picture it…

My mom, dad, their 60lb dog and me all traveling 9 hours in a car together to visit my 85 year old grandparent’s in their retirement town! Not to mention the fact that my parent’s waited until the last minute to tell me that “oh by the way, you (meaning me) and dad are going to be re-doing gram’s kitchen.” WHAT?!

My parent’s picked me up at 3 a.m. on Friday morning. That actually worked out quite well for me. I worked at the bar all day on Thursday and decided to stay a little late and have a few cocktails. By the time they picked me up, I had a nice little buzz going for me and I crawled in the back seat and passed out for 7.5 hours. When we arrived, grammy and pap were super excited to see us. The rest of the day, we just sat around and chatted and got a good old-fashioned Domino’s game going. Then it was time for bed….I’m a 6’ tall woman and they have me sleeping in a twin-sized bed with a mattress that is literally over 50 years old. It was my mother’s bed when she was a girl. The next day I woke up and dad immediately had me working on the kitchen. Removing all the doors and hardware and taking everything out to the garage where he began to sand everything down. The next day, we moved into the kitchen and sanded everything down in there. The day after that, we primed everything and the following day, we painted everything. Then I had the fun task of scrubbing all of the hardware and repainting those. Finally, we got a day off where we went to the beach and did lots of antiquing (I love antiquing so this was a good day). Oh and keep in mind too, that I had 7 trade shows happening coast-to-coast during this “weeks’ vacation” so I was constantly having to check email and take phone calls to help people out. Then the highlight to my days came each night when I had the pleasure of taking my family’s money during Domino’s (this was awesome). We then gathered in the family room to watch about an hour of TV - on mute - (pap doesn’t like the noise) and then off to my bed that was way too small with its 50 year old mattress for little to no sleep. Good times right? I was literally counting the seconds until we left for home.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore my grandparent’s and parent’s and I like hanging out with them and playing Domino’s but spending eight days with them on no sleep while re-doing their kitchen and taking care of stuff for my “big girl” job…that was no vacation. It was kind of like hell. JK! I am glad to be back though. I missed my hubby and my normal, busy routine.