Learning to Like Vacation

Charlie has a couple of days off due to President's Day and---as usual---it's sent fine tremors through our household. Charlie definitely has the "five days of school two days of weekend" thing in his system and, as he had Friday off, I expected him to start packing his lunchbox with a Capri Sun, carrots, and plastic containers (which get magically filled by "someone" overnight) Saturday night and to ask to his homework just before he went to bed----such is his sense of order.

Indeed: Friday night, as we've been doing most every Friday, Charlie and I took the PATH train into New York to get take-out and eat dinner in Jim's office. If food is the end goal, there are quite a few steps that have to be gone through to get it: A ride down the highway till we're past Newark Airport, after which we get on routes 1 & 9 and go over the Pulaski Skyway into Jersey City, and then up the hill on one one-way street and down the hill on another, all while hoping no one is blocking the driveway to my office building. I park and we walk about a mile to Journal Square (in a brisk cold wind last night) and take the PATH into Manhattan, and then the D train to near Jim's office.

Certainly a nice meal is a big motivator (and not only for Charlie) but each step seems to be enjoyable in itself. The ride over the Skyway----as we're going east we get one grand view of the Manhattan skyline and it's all lit up with the sun just setting----always brings a huge smile onto his face. (He loves to be up high and being in the Skyway, you do kind of feel like driving.....in the sky, you're that high up and it's a long ride and at a very fast speed.) (I'd love to get a good look too but, as I'm driving, eyes on the road.) It's the sequence of the trip that makes the trip.

So, Friday night, after dinner and cleaning up Jim's desk (crumbs; noodles.....) we started to do the usual: #1 subway downtown and then a short walk to the PATH station at the World Trade Center site. It chanced that we had to make a bit of a detour, going quickly left just as we came in view of the station and Charlie's distress crescedo'd as we walked, only to peak just as we came into the station went down the escalators, and ran onto the platform. These were familiar and, by the time the train pulled back into Journal Square, Charlie was ready to run the mile back (in an even more freezing cold wind) to the car.

That's how breaks from school and vacations affect our household, which Charlie is certainly at the center of. Even with advance preparation, they still feel jarring and just weird, like driving on the wrong side of the road. What makes it harder, too, is that people generally see "vacation" and "time off from school" as positive, as happy, as cause for celebration, and look a little consternated when I explain why they're not easy on Charlie and how we're all relieved when it's back to school. Certainly Charlie's glad to sleep in and do a lot of "hanging" but, as his teacher noted, he likes to be busy---Charlie's not one to pass the day in front of the TV set or playing videogames.

Guess a working vacation is in order.

(Though how's this for a surprise: After sleeping in very late today and yesterday, Saturday, Charlie didn't pack his lunchbox---maybe we're all learning to like vacation a bit more.)

Photo by Eye of the Storm.