Only three days...

Until my first ever paid vacation!!! It came down to choosing between two open weeks on the editorial schedule, and I chose next week for some bizarre reason. NOW, I have to think of something to do besides watching Days of our Lives with my cat.
AND SPEAKING OF THE CAT... he dumped a bowl of milk on my head this morning right before I was about to leave for work.
Had to wash my hair and do the whole outfit choosing ritual ALL OVER AGAIN.
Now, you may wonder how a cat can knock a bowl of milk on his owner's head, considering the owner, while not much fatter, is much taller than said cat.
I think it may have been my own fault.
The story: Woke up and got dressed for work. Very tired and grumpy, with cat following me around wanting pets. Went into kitchen to fix bowl of cereal (the Lumberjack recently purchased Golden Grahams, not as good as I remember as a kid) and sat down on the couch to watch the news. Cat sits down too. Finished cereal, set the bowl on the arm of the couch and snuggled up in a blanket to watch last few minutes of newscast. Steve "I-Hope-Somebody-Robs-a-Bank-Today" Jefferson is all excited about a teenage shootout. Great. Fell asleep. Cat takes opportunity to jump up and have a snack he's not allowed to have, gets too enthusiastic about delicious milk and knocks bowl off armrest onto my head.
He says he heard people used milk to make their hair shiny.

went to work with VERY shiny, bouncy twice-washed hair at janeh928@yahoo.com

Life at a daily paper...

Is difficult for many reasons, but today, the number 1 reason would be: trying to schedule vacation time is impossible.
There are too many factors that go into planning when I should get to have a little free time. What ongoing stories could suffer if I miss something the week I'm gone? Will we have enough reporters to cover all the news (can't schedule off when someone else schedules off)? Being the rookie, I get last pick, or so I would assume. What happens if a natural disaster occurs and I am not here to report on it? Mainly, this will make me mad that I missed something, I'm not going to get in trouble for it or anything. Do I make enough money to go on vacation????? heehee Should I just not go? If I don't go, will I kill myself because of all the stress? Or at the very least go crazy? If I go crazy, would it be crazy enough that I could go to a mental hospital and not have to worry about scheduling a vacation ever again??? I need an afternoon off just to figure out when, where and how to have a vacation with the least possible negative ramifications on my career! And that's not gonna' happen.

do you have the time to listen to me whine? at janeh928@yahoo.com