Family Vacation

I'm getting annoyed.  We have been trying to line up a summer family vacation since January.  Finally in May we decided we better get something on the books or the entire summer would pass (like last summer) and we will have had no time away as a family.  We aren't trying to plan much, just a few days away at a house on the water in Poulsbo.  It shouldn't be that difficult to get 5 people (possibly 6, we would like Josh's gf Evy along too) out of town for 5 nights.  Sure we have to drive a couple of hours and take a ferry to our destination, but that shouldn't be THAT difficult, should it?

The summer calendar is full of important things like work, classes, weddings, appointments, meetings, fair week (to some of us that is important).  The older everyone gets the less free blocks of time there are.  So you prioritize and we booked the vacation for mid-July.

This weekend we debated the dates again and some of us decided that maybe the dates should be switched.  Arrggghhhhhh, so I e-mailed the owner of the rental house and she graciously said we could change the dates.  While it was a majority decision to change the dates it was not a unanimous decision.  I know I will hear some grief about the changed dates.  Why is it SO difficult for us to block ourselves out of all obligations for 5 days? 

I think Annika's shrink was right, there are 'committed' people and 'non-committed' people.  We joked with her that we should be committed.  She said that for people (like us) that make commitments and stick with them life can be very stressful and involve burn-out most of the time.  I like that we make commitments and are dependable and reliable.  BUT, sometimes I wish we could be the type of people that don't make commitments--you know the ones I mean.  The ones that when you ask them 'would you be able to [insert item here]', the response usually goes something like:  'well sure if we are around, we aren't sure what we are doing yet'.   This kind of response always makes me crazy--maybe it makes me crazy because I am jealous.  I don't think I could EVER do that and maybe secretly I wish I could??  No, we are the type of people that if someone asks us if we are available we answer definitively.  No wiggle room.   I've even gone so far as to say (on too many occasions to count):  'you let me know when and I will make it work'.  I think it may be time for us to start consciously building in wiggle room, but it goes against the grain for me.

WE.ARE.GOING. on vacation for 5 days at the end of the summer--for better or for worse.  I'm already stressing about how I'm going to get my job covered.  *sigh*