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A weekend getaway to visit friends or family in a different city from the one that you live in is always an exhilarating experience. Chances are you took Friday off from work, and you either took off from the airport on Thursday night or early Friday morning.
I love the lead up to a trip that I’ve booked a few weeks in advance. Anticipation grows as the trip gets closer on the calendar, and then it all comes to a head in those last few hours before boarding the plane.
You get yourself a nice Evian or Smart Water for seven bucks from a kiosk near your gate, and you don’t even blink at the price because well, you’re taking a trip and you’re excited. Money isn’t real in the airport, just ask anyone who has ever had a two or three-hour layover and gotten blackout drunk drinking six dollar Bud Lights at Chili’s Too. You simply don’t think about money the same way when you’re inside of an airport.
But all of this anticipation and excitement for the weekend ahead comes with a price attached to it. It’s an emotional, physical toll, and it shows up as you’re getting driven back to the airport on Sunday afternoon for your return flight back home to real life.
No more fun dinners or inside jokes. It’s back to the harsh, cold reality of your 9 to 5 job and mundane daily routine. Sunday scaries get ramped up a notch when you’re forced to fly home on the Sabbath.
You’re more than likely hungover, and since the cosmos just feel like they’re against anyone who would willingly choose to fly on a Sunday, maybe your flight gets delayed and now you’re starting to realize that the plane you’re on isn’t going to land until at least 9:00 p.m.
Now you’re thinking about how you probably won’t get home until 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. and reality is setting in — Monday morning at work is going to be miserable.
Which is precisely where taking a vacation day after your vacation is over comes in. I know that this isn’t going to appeal to everyone reading. You’ve just used a vacation day to get last Friday off. This is a move strictly for people who are looking to use up a few more PTO days because there’s nowhere to use them right now.
Think about how much more fun your last few hours with the people you are visiting would be if you knew that work wasn’t on the table the next morning. Brunch — which would have been about as fun as a wake if you were going to be in the office the next day — suddenly becomes a darty where you’ll be able to crush bloodies, those fun Miller Lite sidecars, and mimosas with reckless abandon.
The party can even continue when you arrive at the airport. You can be as drunk as you want to be because even if you do end up falling asleep on the plane it’s not like a hangover is going to be that big of a deal. Remember that you’ve got all of Monday to recuperate now that you’ve tacked on an extra day of “me-time” to your weekend getaway.
I thought of this idea yesterday while I groaned and tried to sleep on my flight back to Chicago from Washington, D.C.
I don’t have vacation days to spend right now, and I’m currently battling a category 4 hangover at my desk. I just wanted to float the idea out there because it’s February and I know a lot of people are taking fun weekend trips to get away from the cold for a few days. All I’m saying is that if you have the means, I highly recommend it. It is so choice..
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jduda@grandex.co
Okay but who did you pretend to be in D.C. and how did it go? The people need that follow up ASAP.
Thank you. I need less of Duda’s opinions and more of what his lies were and how he went down in flames using them
$6 Bud Lights?? I got blackout on Bells Two Heart IPA at Laguardia on Black Friday. Didn’t ask the price beforehand cause you’re right about money not being real at airports. Got the bill, they were $18/piece for tall. I had 6. Turns out that bill was very real.
You had SIX tall Bells Two Hearteds? That’s amazing. Those things can really knock you on your ass.
Slept like a baby all the way back to Dallas!!
I always take Fridays and Mondays off whenever I have a weekend getaway.
Need that extra day of reflection, rest and relaxation.
I just got back from my lifelong friend’s wedding five hours away last night on what was a literal sixty hour bender after taking Friday off. I slept for 5 1/2 hours total. Tomorrow, I travel another five hours one way by car with Mrs. and Little Bogey for a doctors appointment that’ll take all of twenty minutes. This should’ve been published about four hours ago, as I currently cruise somewhere between insomnia and crippling aches while I can still smell well liquor from the wedding seeping out of my pores.
Thank you for this. I have two trips in the next few months and just took Friday. After a weekend of pretending I was still 21 with my buddy’s, I still feel rough today. Just put in for the Mondays after those trips.
Checking in from home after a weekend at my friends house who lives 4 hours away. Vacation from the vacation is definitely the move.
Usually my go to method of easing back into work but on occasion I have found myself needing to save the PTO and trudge in on a Monday post vacation
Yeah, taking maybe the Friday and always the Monday after a trip is always the choice to make.