W is for Wandering: A to Z Blogging Challenge 2018

W.

Wonderfully witty writting words, watching...waiting...waiting...waiting...

Waiting was never my forte.  So I'll write without waiting. 

I'm at use or lose on my leave carryover at work, so I'm on vacation today. It was a random week I chose last October.

VA likes us to declare our leave time for the upcoming year during October of the previous year.  The activities I wanted to attend either had not announced their 2018 dates, or the weeks announced were already taken when I approached the Leave Calender.  So I claimed a couple random weeks.  When my Supervisor reminded me of this week I looked online to see what type of activities were going on and I found a 4-day conference that was perfect.

Well, almost perfect.  It was cost prohibitive. So I contacted Education to see if they had money in the budget for an awesome conference.   I told them about it's perfectness--every session offered is exactly what we discuss in Bed Huddle with the Chief of Staff and Director every morning, and the breakout sessions all delt with innovative solutions to the problems we face on the Ward, as well as during our daily Interdisciplanary Team Meetings. It would have greatly  benefited the VA for me to attend.

Education said I missed the request deadline and denied my request. It's perfectness didn't count to them.

It's so perfect, I considered paying for the confrence  and travel expenses out of my IRS refund, savings, and travel points, and using my vacation time to attend.

And then I thought again. 

Honestly, I've had a couple really hard weeks of only 2-3 people to cover both Temple and Waco campuses. This is on top of the almost 3 years we've been severely short-staffed. So, I decided to be selfish and keep my vacation just for me.

Next year, I'll apply for the conference early.  Of course it will be somewhere not in Texas, and the same topics won't be broached; therefore, unless the topics mirror next year's problems and concerns, it won't be as perfect. What it will be is expensive.  More so than this year, since it likely will be much farther away. Therefore, I will allow  VA to pay for the confrence, my flight, daily expenses, and keep me in pay status. They lost out on their chance to get it on the cheap this year.   Deadlines be d.... Okay, I've indulged myself long enough with the whining (a not so great W-word).

So this week I've been wasting time (awsesome vaycay W-word).  Wasting time is really a misnomer though, I've been quite productive:  I've engaged in house work, the laundry mountain,  caught up with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, bought a couple pair of jeans (on sale, with coupons, and smaller than I usually wear--woohoo!--a wonderful W-word), and spent time with the FurBoys--basically, I've done anything I felt like doing.  When I felt like doing it.  I've made no committments to anyone except The Boys. And I participated in my all-time favorite time-wasting activity today. 

Bandit and I went wandering. 

I love to wander--get in the car and drive aimlessly. The best wandering occurs spur-of-the moment. Up until I actually left, I was going to go by myself. But at the last minute I invited Bandit for a r•i•d•e. He jumped at the chance.  He loves rides. He also loves to have me to himself without The Cat.  Win-win. (Fabulous double W-word).

During one of our stops, I saw a sign that read, Whatever you do, do it with all your heart.  That's a committment I can get behind.

Along our travel route we passed the Big Ass Winery. Although they were referring to their donkey, I LOL a few miles down the road when I ran across Jung Street. I think Carl could have a heyday with the signs of central Texas.

Retirement is still quite a few years away.  I'm not exactly sure where I will be or what I'll be doing, but if I can incorporate wandering, I'll be a Happy Camper (another sign I saw during our wander today). 

I look forward to wasting more time as I wonder where and when I'll next wander.