"Hello Mum, how you doin?"
"Ugh. It's hot."
"I know. Here too."
"Don't want to do anything."
"Me neither. What are you doing?"
"Nothing. You?"
"Same."
"How's your upcoming week look?"
"Not bad, all things considered. Same old same old the first couple of days. And then vacation."
"Vacation? You never mentioned a vacation."
"Yes I did. You just didn't listen."
"Right. When do you have vacation?"
"Thursday and Friday. I'm going to Boston."
"We're going to be in Massachusetts Thursday. Well, leaving that day. We're going down Tuesday."
"To Grandma's? We should meet up! What time are you leaving? I can swing by and say hello or we can get Richardson's or something. It'll be fun."
"We're leaving early that morning. Your dad doesn't want to miss golf at Men's Night."
"Oh." Pause. "Well, I could head down Wednesday after work and spend the night with you guys at Gram's. I'd get there around 10ish."
"Well, we're leaving pretty early Thursday, so we don't want you to change your plans."
"Mom, the point of this vacation is that I have no plans. I've nothing to change."
"Your grandmother will be all worried if you're driving down alone that night."
"As opposed to driving down alone in the morning?"
"We'll see you at some point soon. It's fine."
"And Dad won't reconsider missing Men's Night once? So he can see his favorite - might I mention ONLY - daughter shortly before Father's Day?"
"Well, if you have all this spare time, why don't you come visit Sunday?"
"Hmm. I could maybe do that. I wouldn't be there for long, but I could stop by on my way back to Burlington. What are you guys up to then?"
"Well, your father's got the day off, he's playing golf. You could say hi to him from the green."
"I've been replaced by a set of golf clubs. Great."
"Hahaha."
"Well, you guys should get up here soon and visit me. I mean, you spend all this time in Massachusetts with your other child. Hehehe."
"It's not to be with my other child. Well, not that other child."
"What?"
"I'm having so much fun redecorating your grandmother's house."
"So my father has replaced me with a set of golf clubs and my mother has replaced me with a house?"
"Um, pretty much."
"Fabulous. Thank you. That's awesome. I'm going to go make a margarita now and drown my sorrows. Love you."
"You too, sweetie. Keep cool."
"You too. Bye."
"Bye."

-----------
In other, related news. I'm looking forward to being able to (finally) see Mr. Vertigo in concert during my time off - a little jaunt to New Hampshire is on the agenda for Friday. I'm pleased about it, as I've wanted to see the band for awhile. Check out the site for details.

I'm trying to keep my normal inclination to plan things and organize my minibreak to a minimum, so that I force myself to actually relax. It's a good idea in theory, anyway. Right now, I'm looking to The Tribe at The Cantab (seeing M perform Thursday will provide disjointed flashbacks to Rough Edges*), Mr. Vertigo, wandering the city, maybe a stop in Beverly and perhaps a beach.

I'm just going to let the pieces fall where they may.

But, in classic form, being so close to a little time off means the next couple of days are going to crawl by.

*Rough Edges (n.): 1. Group of college students with a passion for saying "Yes, and..." at all times, jumping into song in the middle of a circle and developing characters and situations one otherwise might never have known existed. 2. Improvisional comedy troupe.