Excited! I just got the word from my boss today that all my proposed vacation plans are a GO. Hooray!
This year I get two paid weeks off (actually 10 days, because I work 5 days a week) and I had already submitted 5 days in May that took up half of my allotted time. Connected to those days are three of my regular days off, so I'll have a nice 7-day trip away plus 1 day to recover after I fly back home.
My boss has been bugging me to tell her what other days I want off later in the year because people with less seniority than I have are also trying to arrange for their time off, but they have to schedule around everyone who comes before them (at least I have less people above me than they do). I've felt pressured trying to figure this shit out because I am just not the kind of person that plans that far ahead, so I've been uber-focused on this for the last couple weeks trying to find places to go, things to do, and to see how much I can spend. I had asked my boss for dates that I could choose from, after she and two other people get first dibs before I do.
And as much as I've been struggling with this the past several weeks, it all fell into place last night! I found an event/activity I want to do, they have an opening, I qualify for a discounted rate, and the schedule would be perfect! So, I sent my boss an email with the dates I wanted and she wrote back this morning that it's all cool with her.
So - besides the 8 days in May, I'll have a nice little 4-day break at the end of summer, and a full work-week off in the fall, which used up all my paid vacay days. Breaking up my vacation time into segments and connecting my usual days off with all those vacation days gives me a few nice strings of time off that will break up the year nicely and help with the stress of the job. I'd rather do that than have just one big vacation a year, like one of my co-workers does. She also approved my request to switch some days around in order to have a long weekend in July. I'll just make up the time at a later date.
I've never had this much paid vacation time in my life, so I'm going to make the best of it! One trip will be to an artist's retreat and the surrounding city; one will be spent just being lazy at a friend's house in the country; the long weekend will probably be a beachy kind of getaway and/or maybe visiting relatives; and the last bit of time off will be on a sailing trip. I am stoked! Now I just need to count my pennies and make it all happen!