Vacation Time? Wait, What?

[ase]

At the rate I'm going, I'll accrue 80 hours of rollover vacation time and another 25 or 30 of use-or-lose, but I have no money. So says my boss. What should I do with no travel budget and the (minimum) three days I absolutely, positively must take off before December 31st?

(This is the year I make myself a little miserable with penny-pinching, so next year I can have guilt-free toys like a dSLR and a car. A cheap car. Maybe a zipcar membership.)

Off to bike and contemplate the cons and further cons of running away to Nag's Head for a week. Yay, exercise!

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

I used up most of my vacation--well, discounting the portion allocated for TV-related absence--on Fridays and Mondays for cons...

[ase.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that means budgeting for registration, hotel and travel expenses. Also, isn't one of the big draws for a convention the people you'll see? Most of my posse will be at Capclave, and not at other conventions. Gaylaxicon is in Bethesda this year - I could day-trip that, if the programming's interesting.

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

Still in DC right? Have a laptop?

Fangirls' Guide to the Smithsonian Institution?

How about just burrowing into the Library of Congress for a little while?

Does the Chinatown Bus count as no money?

[ase.livejournal.com]

In DC, but the laptop weighs 8 pounds. Then you add the power brick... it's technically portable.

Depending on what I do when I get off the bus, the cheap bus to, say, New York City may be doable. It's finding somewhere safe and economical to stay at the other end that might be a problem.

LoC in November is a possibility. Right now we're having awesome DC fall weather, so outdoor plans is really appealing. (Oh! C&O canal bike ride! That would be cool.)

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

When the C & O Canal path was first opened, my dad's Boy Scout troop hiked the length of it. Sounds like a cool idea to me.

As far as the places to stay in NY thing: Are you still on the Bujold list? If you're willing to make an open appeal for "Anyone interested in hosting a listie?", I had an outstanding time with the listies I met and stayed with in New Zealand. Or you might know people on LJ. Does the bus go to Philly? I know there are listie types there who would remember you. The Franklin Institute is exceedingly cool, if you've never been there.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Biking the entire canal route is probably more than I'm ready for, but at least one day trip would be rocking awesome.

I'm technically onlist, but read extremely sporadically. I wouldn't feel comfortable delurking after years for the express purpose of freeloading (cheaploading? Can I invent that word?).

Weirdly, I would feel less weird about bugging, say, the lmbujold comm. I've made enough icon posts there that I feel I've got a little social capital to work with.

Does the bus go to Philly?

I'm pretty sure Greyhound services the entire BosWash corridor. Chinatown buses may or may not.

[tessfawcett.livejournal.com]

Come up to Boston in a month or two; amuse yourself by taking public transportation to parks and admiring the leaves during the day, then come home and have a beer with me as I pore over my reference homework. God only knows who I'll be living with at that point but the air mattress is mine, and therefore all yours if you want it. Of course that does require you to get UP to Boston. While theoretically this could be done cheaply on buses, I don't think I recommend it...

I keep meaning to call you, btw, but am not the best conversationalist lately, being cranky and exhausted. I will try calling in a few days...

[ase.livejournal.com]

Boston! I could be persuaded. I'm going to talk to my supervisor and my boss, and see how to work around already-scheduled vacation time. People seem to think I'm going to want time around Thanksgiving and Christmas. What I'm really thinking about is cities where I have people I want to see and/or crash space, transportation costs, and how nice DC weather is in the fall. Possibly I'll blow a couple of days on local-ish bike trips, and the rest on three day weekends in different states.

[wmslawhorn.livejournal.com]

I don't know how your company handles holidays, but there are the days after Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Are you planning to do the book brigade stuff on Friday of Capclave? That would be three days.

There are always the classics. Pick a day and watch movies at home, read a book the day after it comes out, or just take a couple of late starts or leave early.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I could take a half day for book brigade duty, depending on my work load; 2 of three people in my work group already have that Friday off. We get the day after Thanksgiving as a company holiday. Strolling in at noon a couple of times would be fun. I know what the inside of my apartment looks like quite well, so getting out is more of a priority than staying in on this round.

[wmslawhorn.livejournal.com]

Book brigade help would be appreciated.

I believe that cathydalek and makotohanabi are going to be in the Twinbrook area that Thursday afternoon as well, beating the traffic...

[ase.livejournal.com]

With multiple people taking vacation around that time, it's unlikely I'll get more than one afternoon off that week. I'd rather use the time to do something new, or that I haven't done in a while.