Vacation-ing

I could barely sleep last night and my roommate thinks I've it.  Why?  I'm going on vacation! Meaning I will not have to work for the next four days, I will be special, and the world is pregnant with possibility! What will I do; sail, swim, ski, hike, eat, drink, read, relax, sleep-in... over ambition looks like long runs, extensive hikes, camping, volunteering, reading 10 books, winning a volleyball tournament or fishing contest, bonding with everyone at the resort/hotel etc. 

When I imagine myself on vacation, I'm Mariah Carey from her Honey music video, minus the mafia nonsense.  Summer vacation is just about the best think in the entire world! Even as a child I was enamored with summer vacation, School's out for Summer, stay up late, sleep in, get in trouble, do it all over again. Why are vacations so important? Do they keep us from killing each other?

Obviously vacations are a form of luxury and complaining about them is the the essence of "first world problems."  It always amazes me, that in this sacred and brief time dedicated to vacationing, how weird and crazy things can get...examples being Disney World or Cruise Ships or say a GIANT MUSIC FESTIVAL. John Hugh's nails this dynamic between utopia and purgatory in his The National Lampoon's Vacation movies, where he exemplifies the great dynamics of a vacation.  Like you, I myself have had quite the adventures in vacationing, where now (just before leaving to go to the lake) I can only think of the good, but I know all too well the sweet is never as sweet without the sour.  How could I have ever imagined.....

• Getting chicken pox in Nags Head NC during my families 18984 vacation? 
• Puking on my cousin after being stuffed with fast food and being shoved onto a Ferris Wheel in Cincinnati OH?
• My friends older brother getting Silly Putty stuck in his eye just before driving to White Lake, NC? Or then later, finding a pot-belly pig in the middle of the lake?
• With this same family eating Vienna sausage sandwiches while boating.
• How as a sophomore in college, I would happen to miss my flight leaving Amsterdam Netherlands by 24+ hours and have no idea before walking up to the ticket counter?
• Skipping out on a gigantic bar tab in Old San Juan Puerto Rico, and literally having people chasing after us?
• Having a travel companion morph into Quasimoto going from having a cold to having a sty and twisted ankle while in Capri Italy? Then finding a lost friend by the sound of his roller luggage along the cobble stone streets in Venice Italy?
• Or how in Roatan Honduras our taxi driver thought he needed a belt changed on his van, but low-and-behold it was a dead cat caught in his car's engine?
• How could I have ever imagined American Airlines would loose my luggage in going-to and returning-from Brazil? And I would have to buy the smallest most ridiculous leopard print Brazilian bathing suit in Rio Brazil? Or how I would slip while dancing and severely bruise my thumb, chin, and knee in Sau Paulo Brazil?
• Or how after having a spectacular lunch on the beach in gorgeous Talum Mexico the poor beach cabana would catch on fire and burn just as they were setting up for a wedding that night?
• Or how my friends and I almost died by a pack of goats in Glacier National Park MT? 
• Or how I flew to Colombia without knowing Spanish, not knowing who was picking me up at the airport, and how/where I would meet my friends?