i'm going on vacation next week, so there will be a week of silence from the pulpit before week 19's sermon comes out. i'm sure you can entertain yourselves during my absence. i will probably continue to check email during my absence, but don't depend on the kind of anally-expedient replies you typically get from me.

i will be spending a week or so of that vacation time visiting my sister in reno. it might be nice if i could take my xmas vacation someplace warmer than here, but alas that was not meant to be. instead i will be right where desert meets mountain, with beautiful scenery, cold mountain air, & the kind of excessive sunlight that gave my sensitive self a headache last time i was out there. on the other hand i will be in nevada, the u.s's mecca of sin where every supposedly unwholesome activity except drug use is smiled upon & condoned, so i'm sure i'll be spending some time in front of the slot machines. last time i won $40 net (just on quarter & nickel slots), so even if i don't win big (like a recent fortune cookie promised, "you will be traveling & coming into a fortune"), my losses will probably even out.

the part i'll enjoy most of all will be simply getting away from the office. aside from holidays & weekends, the last time i had a day off was april. it will be some relief being away from this place for almost 2 weeks, & in a way makes it worthwhile that i'd been saving up so many vacation & personal days. things have been super slow in the past couple weeks, & while i guess it's better than being overworked in a crunch period, it's not nearly as good as being able to leave. if i'm going to goof off, i'd rather have the option of doing so at home. i actually spent a good part of the day today printing up fliers & such to decorate my new cube (i'm being moved to a different team, & thus get a new desk on a different floor). & now i'm writing this sermon at work, because the one work-related task i have to do will not take the rest of the day.

do i have a lot of exciting vacation activities planned? not really. i'll probably see a few sights while i'm out there (i've never been in the mountains, after all), gamble a bit, & of course, as is my compulsion whenever i go out of town, i'll shop for music. the only real difference is that this time i'll be shopping primarily for records as opposed to cds. not that i'm too bothered by this. i'm not the type who would love those scheduled tours, where the bus shows up in a different country each hour, with stops just long enough to take a couple photos before skipping away to the next stop. i'm really just looking for relaxation time.

i'll have that downtime in spades. i have a full day off work to pack & prepare myself before i leave for reno, & will have as much vacation time here in indy as i will in reno. furthermore, because i bought my "convenient e-tickets" online (time will tell how convenient they really are), i got to choose only flights that leave around noon. no waking up early like a sucker for me. i get to sleep late & not worry about being at the airport by 5am for proper check-in.

that's it for this week. wish me luck. if only you could all be there in the casinos with me to blow on my dice. hopefully by the time i return to indy (dec 12) we'll have a president-elect...