It’s worth mentioning, though, that I put together a large “to do” list for myself during this vacation. That’s right – I have tasks to complete during my time away from the office. I’m not going away on a vacation, I’m doing one of these newly popular “staycation” things where I stay around my house for a week. I’m doing this partly out of necessity (while I’m on vacation from my day job, I still have to teach twice this week) and partly due to the tremendous cost savings associated with not going away. Initially, I wanted to take a few days and go down to Nashville. Then I realized that I would go down to Nashville and spend a bunch of money on a flight only to get down there and wind up doing more work for the national Board that I sit on. I figured that I can do that from home so why spend the money on the flight?

To keep busy over the next few days, I’ve given myself four small pages of notes on things that need to be addressed. Everything from figuring out the problem with my truck to reading a stack of the books that are sitting in my room to making certain foods that I like to getting ready for next week’s classes that I have to teach.

It’ll be a busy, yet somehow relaxing week!

Let me digress… To me the best vacation is one where you’re away from the daily grind and away from the daily scene. I wouldn’t imagine vacationing in Nashville if all of my co-workers, their families, my roommates, their friends, my friends, and my clients all came down there with me. What a futile effort in relaxation! I suppose that repetition has rendered this manner of vacation to be customary for the New Yorkers. It’s their choice to vacation this way – I certainly wouldn’t do it like they do.

Anyway, after living in this miserable borough for the last few years my roommates and I will be moving away at the end of this month. We’re heading just a little bit west over Route 35 and past the Parkway to Tinton Falls. In my case, this will cut between 10 and 15 minutes off of my daily commute, thus giving me back about a half an hour each day (and untold millions in gas costs). The new rental is also a legit three bedroom townhouse as opposed to where we live now, which is a two bedroom apartment which was painfully converted into a three bedroom apartment with no common storage space and very little closet space in each bedroom.

We’ve toured the townhouse twice and I really like it. I admit, though, that I’m biased because I absolutely hate living in our current apartment. The new townhouse has two and a half bathrooms while our current apartment has one bathroom. With three professional guys living in one place and guests coming over every once in a while, it’s hard to argue against adding two extra bathroom areas to our living space.

The original listing did suggest that there would be an unfinished, small basement, but that turned out not to be true. Not that we expected anything big – probably a 10 x 10 basement where we could store some of our excess stuff. On the flip side, we do have a shared backyard in the new place and since we’re the end unit, we have the side yard, too. This should come in handy when we have our apartment-opening barbecue in a few weeks.

As far as other issues to deal with – I’m currently looking into the various Roman Catholic Churches in the area to see where I may wind up if I decide that my current parish is too far. We’re all in the midst of packing the current apartment – moving it over to the new place will be aggravating, I’m sure. I also have to call the vendors who send me bills/information to my current address and change their files to my new address.

All of that aside, I’m excited to be leaving Deal (FINALLY), I’m excited to be heading West to Tinton Falls, and I’m excited that I’ll get a half an hour back in my day.