Gone Fishin'

For the first Roth family in vacation in four years (another way of saying that my wife informed me that it was time, and they were going with or without me...) I found myself with a preparation conundrum which reinforced why I never do this...

We left Friday morning. This meant Thursday night turned into Friday morning as I frantically attempted to empty my desk. I went to sleep at 4:15 AM, 3 hours before I was supposed to get up, pile the family into the car, and begin to drive north for a 2 hour drive to a hike through an ancient man-made water canal through a cave, followed by another two hours to get to our hotel.

I have 4 things to say about this.

1. Coffee
2. Both of my children spent the entire way there screaming, "Yay, WATER HIKE!!!" My 2 year old son spent most of the hike neck deep in water and happy as a pig in- well neck deep water. My daughter, who is almost 5 spent the entire hike screaming, "I'm scared, hold me!!!"
3. Yes, the pictures will be on FB when I get back home and download them
4. I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but when I got married 8 years ago hiking 4 KM through a body of knee deep water in a cave while carrying a 50 Lb. weight in one arm and a 35Lb. weight in the other would have been a piece of cake. Now that there would be a practical application for such a skill, I'm completely incapable- a fact of which I was unaware prior to embarking on this trip- meaning that I'm going to spend the next 3 days holding my kids while hiking on rough terrain, and keeping a hand available to steady my pregnant wife, so she doesn't fall. Yes. We're dumb.
5. I know there was a five... Oh, yes. COFFEE!!!

Most of this detail is way too much information, but here is what you do need to know. Much of my incapacity was due to being up at 4:15 the morning we left, because I simply couldn't go until my inbox was clear- because my wife kidnapped my blackberry.

As I write this (everyone is sleeping, and I snuck out of the room to pick up some WiFi in the lobby) It's been 42 hours since I checked my email, and I find myself actually getting stressed about this fact. I think this might be the definition of an addiction. I need to have my fix, or I get edgy. Even if work is *THE* fix.

OK, gotta sneak back into the room now, but if i sound confused the next time a consultant tells me he has to move into industry as a "lifestyle decision," you'll know why.

And in case you were wondering... No rundown this week.