I need a vacation.

We are mere hours away from our trip to Ireland, and, boy, could I use a vacation!

The immediate lead-up time to a trip is always hectic, but today was especially nuts-o, for several reasons:

I had a lot of loose ends to tie up at work:

• My boss will be staffing an exhibit in Vancouver (our first conference of several this spring), and my job was to prepare all the print materials including posters and handouts, as well as to coordinate all the shipping.
• Almost immediately after I get back to the office, I will be heading to Toronto to staff an exhibit there. So I had to prepare all those materials and arrange my travel.
• While I'm away, my new employee is starting. (It sucks that I won't be there when she starts, but she will have some time to get used to the office and learn more about our company.) Instead, I prepared some notes and materials for her.
• I needed to draft four press releases for follow-up by my boss. At least two of those should be published while I'm gone.
• I had to bring one of my peers up to speed on the changes I've made to our website and on our revised press-release publishing process.
• I had to pack my office up before leaving as they will be re-reconfiguring it while I am away.

Complicating all of that was the fact that our office is being reconfigured and we were unable to work at our desks on Monday or Tuesday this week. It made Wednesday really stressful.

On the personal end of things, I hit a couple of speed bumps.

Despite a 3-week course of antibiotics, my sinus infection did not clear up, so I had to see the doctor, who prescribed a different (and expensive - thank God for medical insurance!) antibiotic. So instead of working till 5 today, I had to leave early. 

(I actually would not have made an appointment today. My sinuses are bad, but, with my history, I've had worse. But I'd had a sinus x-ray on Monday and the results show that my right sinus is fully cloudy. That was more than two weeks into my course of antibiotics, so I fully expected it to be clear. I'm glad they caught it, though, because flying with a sinus infection ain't fun.)

The visit to the doctor was straightforward. But when I got to the mall to fill the prescription, I accidentally locked my keys and the prescription in the car.

To add to the fun, I had left my cell phone at home. 

In the end, I used a pay phone (Did you know that it now costs 50 cents to make a phone call?) to call home. My older son, Peter, convinced younger son, Brin, to bring me my phone and the spare key. Brian ran all the way to the mall, so I treated him to a burger while we waited for the prescription to be filled. 

And I still have to pack.