Take Me Away

I wish I got to go on more weekend getaways. Really just more vacations in general.  It sounds easy enough to pack a bag and drive to a new destination a couple hours away.  Not to mention we live within a couple hours of the beach and the mountains, so there's a decent amount of destinations in our radius.

But unfortunately it's not that simple or that cheap for us.  First we have to find someone to watch the dogs. My work schedule when I worked retail was all over the place so planning some time off is a process.  And there's the financial aspect of it. While the groupon getaways* themselves are fairly reasonable and we've had good luck with the two we've used, there are other costs that add up. The gas to get there, eating out, any activities we do, the dog sitter/boarding, all of that adds up. The wedding and honeymoon are over (and paid for), but we just put several hundred (several, several hundred) dollars into my car to fix it, and I need a crown (and not the pretty sparkly kind princesses wear either) in a month which, *cries*.  And extra income is being allocated into accounts for school,** paying off my credit card, and rebuilding dinocroc's braces fund*** (savings), not vacay.

We just took our honeymoon which was great and much needed. But there probably won't be many more instances like where we can both take time off like that.  Or really any time off for that matter.  Now with me being in school full time and working 3/4 time between 2 part-time jobs (and no benefits!), my schedule is packed.**** Hopefully by the time I receive my masters I'll have a full time job (with benefits), which would definitely alleviate a lot of the school/work balancing stress, but that's also around the time to start family planning (and balancing in a whole different sort of way).  And then there's the part that once we have kids, we'll need to find a baby/pet sitter,* or take a family vacation.  Which don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to those because they'll be fun and great in their own way. But they certainly aren't quite as romantic as couple vacation.

But oh well, that's life. It's not the end of the world that I don't get to go on vacation. I just wish I had a few more of them or weekend getaways under my belt. That's all.

*I had to unsubscribe from the groupon getaways since it was making me sad seeing all the possibilities and knowing they're a no go. Great for the honeymoon deal. Not so good for everyday.
**we're trying to do grad school on no or minuscule amount of loans. And while I hope to be in school for only 2 years so it's not a huge strain financially, but it's a stressful way to go through school feeling like you're just an expense.
***fingers crossed they get my eyesight and my teeth since I didn't need braces.  And yeah my eyesight isn't great but Mike's is worse, so mine is definitely the lesser of two evils.
****I'm not in the plan my days in half hour increments mode yet, but it's around the corner.
* We're always going to have to find some sort of pet sitter anyway though since we definitely plan on having a family dog. But it still won't be a puppy.