Finally, I now have a date for my vacation! After a lot of dithering (how many days should I ask for? when exactly?), I made my choice and talked to the boss. He was really sweet about it, didn't even ask how many days I wanted and just said yes. This was so different from the last 2 years!

In 2001, I was working for the bitch from hell, in the Marketing department in a bank. Before starting there, I'd done a bit of job hopping, never long enough in one place to take a vacation, plus I'd work till Friday on one place and start on Monday at the next, so I hadn't even had a couple of days' rest. The result, I'd worked for almost 2 years straight, all the while studying for college and attending class 4 hours a day. I'd leave home at 8:30 AM and get back at 11 PM. Believe me, I was beat, and stressed to the max.

Anyway, I asked the bitch for a lousy 3 days, on the week of Carnaval. Monday and Tuesday of that week are a National holiday, so with my 3 days, I'd be able to rest for a whole week. She hemmed and hawed and gave me the evil eye, and finally said yes. Then, 2 days before I was supposed to leave, she started going on about how maybe I should consider staying, because there was so much to do. Sorry, no way. I told her I'd already rented a house for the week, and that I was going and it was final. Deal with it. She didn't like it, but had to accept it. She did her best to ruin my holiday, though, calling me twice a day on my cell phone to ask idiotic questions.

A year later, on the summer of 2002, I was still at the bank, but working with a much nicer boss, but one who worked 15 hours a day, never took a holiday, and expected everyone else to do the same. I asked her for 2 weeks and she said yes, no problem... but she wouldn't sign the vacation request form.

"María, remember I asked you about my vacation yesterday? Well, here's the form for you to sign"

"Fine, leave it on my desk and I'll take a look at it"

A couple of days later...

"Maria, about my vacation, did you get a chance to sign the form?"

"Oh, sorry, I completely forgot about it. Where is it? On my desk? I must have thrown it away by mistake. Ro, be a dear and print another copy for me"

This happened a couple of times and though she finally did sign it, she did so 3 days before I was supposed to leave. By that time, I was a mess.

Knock on wood, but it looks like it'll be different this year. Everything's already settled, and I have a full 3 weeks. I'll be leaving on Tuesday Feb. the 11th, right after work, and won't be back until Wednesday March the 5th. It's 13 days vacation, plus March 3rd and 4th are National holidays (Carnaval again).

I'll be going to La Floresta. The whole family will be renting a house there. I probably won't be blogging at all, but it appears there's a little locutorio, a place with a couple of Internet-connected computers where you can pay for some on-line time. I'll probably check my e-mail a couple of times a week, and might make a couple of posts here, but my book "reviews" will have to wait until I'm back in Montevideo. I'm planning to take a notebook and write them right after finishing each book, so when I get here I'll just have to type them. I did that last year, but I wasn't really writting as much as I am now. I was just jotting down a couple of paragraphs with impressions about the books, to enter into my reading records.