It’s been nice having a few days off to recharge the mental batteries.  When I did contract work last year I found an easy trap to fall into.  Since you’re not a permanent employee, you don’t get paid for days or hours you don’t work.  Thus, any holiday or vacation or sick day you took was an unpaid day.  Then you feel reluctant to take days off, even though a contractors pay, generally higher than a permanent employees, is factored in to account for your days off.  But that doesn’t overtake that sense of chasing the Almighty Dollar and one feels guilty as though they are losing money for any days they take off.  It’s a mental trap that is all too easy to fall into when you’re a contractor/consultant working on an hourly basis.

This year, now that I’m back to permanent status, it’s nice to have the days off and not have the false feeling that you’re not actually getting paid.  In fact, I have some more days to take off before years end and I will be taking full advantage of that.  I never did understand people who forfeited vacation time.

This place that I’m working at now is so much better than other places I’ve been.  I have only been here since August and didn’t think I had much PTO in the bank, but my boss told me I had 5 days to take off before year’s end.  I said “But we never counted the 2 days I took off for Vegas” and he told me not to worry about it.  How cool is that?  Plus, we’re on the honor system here for sick days.  You’re not docked for taking sick days; you’re simply expected not to abuse it.  And the thing is, no one does abuse it, which is nice.

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A side note I’d like to make is holiday/vacation-related.  I’ve found myself eating less and less each Thanksgiving.  Getting stuffed seems kind of stupid to me and it’s not because of some “There Are Starving People In Africa and Newark, New Jersey” kind of guilt or anything like that.  I understand why we have a huge feast and the reasons behind it.  It’s just that I’m not eager anymore to stuff my face, especially now since, unlike when I was a kid, extra calories do wind up adding to the waistline.  I’m not saying I don’t stuff my face with pizza, which is my true weakness.  It’s just that I tend not to overdo it on Thanksgiving.  Maybe because it’s a designated day of gluttony, whereas I like my eating binges to be spontaneous, but you’ll rarely see me going for seconds on Thanksgiving.  Since I don’t normally eat dessert, it’s the one day where I do find room to put some pumpkin pie in my belly, so maybe I am overindulging after all.

Besides, I need to save room for those sinfully delicious holiday beers available this time of year.