Ahhhh, vacation!

Of course, there's no way around it: vacation is nice.

We're doing well down here in our little Florida world. The semester finally finished up - and we survived the whole thing (praise the Lord!). It really wasn't bad as far as semesters go, but things do tend to get busy at the end and this semester was no exception. Teri and I both had the privilege of being in the Fine Arts play that the college produces at the end of the semester. I am usually involved with the productions from the technical standpoint of working on the sound crew (part of my job), but this semester I traded that in for a costume and hit the stage as one of the twin Dromios in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors; Teri was the lovely lady Abbess. It was an awful lot of fun taking part in the production, we both have a very real acting streak and we miss the stage after an extended absence, and it was very nice to have both of us involved - we actually got to see each other even when the schedule was gearing up closer and closer to performance. Don't let anyone tell you that acting is not a lot of work - it is, but it's also highly rewarding work if it's in your blood at all. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves even in the fevered pitch of busyness. But, as is often the case with things that require a lot of work, we were not entirely sad to see the performances end. It's one thing if your involvement with a production represents most of your responsibilities in life, but it's another thing entirely (as is the case for most non-professionals out there) if your involvement is only one more item on your list of things to attend to in a day. Working all day and working all evening does get a bit wearisome at times, so it is not without some feelings of relief and gratefulness that we relegate the semester's performances to memory.

After the semester ends we have a two-week post-term schedule - so our lives returned to normal work as well as some course wrap-up time (this all felt like a vacation in itself simply from the absence of constantly having to be somewhere). After our post-term ended we began our summer vacation week - which we're in the middle of now. On Tuesday we'll wade back into the waters of productive labor, but for now we are thoroughly enjoying pretending to be retired. We took last weekend and made a road trip out to Louisiana where we visited my Grandparents. We hadn't seen them in a while, so it was good to relax and spend some time with them as well as other family who managed to stop in as well. Pictured above is my wife, myself, my mother, my cousin, and my grandmother (she goes by "Nan," I've never called her "grandmother" in my life). Cousin Christopher happened to be near the area picking up his spiffy new ride (which we're all standing in front of), so it was great to see him again after about six years. Things are usually pretty low key when this side of the family gets together, but that suited Teri and me just fine. A little reading, a little tube watching, some conversation, a little wandering around Natchitoches (no, it's pronounced "Nack'-i-desh"), and some Louisiana cookin' made for a wonderful weekend.

Now we're back in Pensacola and planning out the rest of our vacation on the home front, and despite the fact that we're at home, it feels every bit a real vacation (although I did cancel a dentist appointment this morning simply because it didn't seem like something I wanted to do on vacation). Tuesday we hit the outlet malls in a little town about an hour from here and did a bit of bargain shopping; today we ran out to the Naval Air museum and took in a couple of IMAX shows; tomorrow we're going to try to hit the beach and do a bit of parasailing and perhaps rent a jetski; and Friday we're thinking of hitting Mobile and poking our noses in their museum, strolling through their flower gardens, and perhaps touring the USS Alabama or checking out their art museum. All in all a fun little collection of things that we don't normally take the time to do.

After the "retirement" is over (Tuesday), we'll settle back down into a working routine, gather our wits about us, and attempt to be productive and profitable with our summer time. As Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything. When the fall semester rolls back around we'll be more than ready for it, excited about leaping back into things and getting the chance to impact lives, but for now, it is good to relax.

God bless, --Nick