Another year has passed. My birthday came and went last week and for the first time, I think in forever, I took the entire week off. I put on an out of office message, I did my best not to check email and tried my hardest to actually relax.

My birthday fell on Monday and I fully enjoyed the day. It was very low key the entire day. I was still a bit sore from the weekend before. What happened the week before? Glad you asked.

Some guy buddies and I went up to Vermont for another buddy’s bachelor party. We went white water rafted and then camped out overnight. It was a quick little weekend away, but also a lot of fun. I hadn’t been camping in over 20 years, so in typical fashion of how I am, I bought every piece of camping gear that I could possibly need, including a tent big enough for the population of Rhode Island. All in all, it was a great weekend. The white water rafting was a lot of fun, but also left me pretty sore for a few days afterwards.

It was a little tough to know if the soreness was from the white water rafting or from the sleeping on the ground, but it was worth it.

Tuesday I spent watching movies. I gave in and finally watched The Fault In Our Stars because I love a well written movie and I’d heard good things. I’ll admit it, I cried a bit. It was sad, even though I knew how it ended, but still an incredible story and movie.

Wednesday I went in for another tattoo removal appointment, this was number 7. It was filmed by the Boston Globe for a piece they’re doing on the place I go to, so I may post a video of that whole process when/if it makes it to air. The guy filming interviewed me quite a bit about how it felt, why I was doing it, etc. And he filmed the entire hour long process. Hopefully in an effort to educate people that you can really remove a tattoo you don’t want. Or, in my case, three.

After that I drove out to the new house that I’m buying to meet my Agent and home inspector and walked through the whole property. We came up with a list of things the seller needs to fix and sent that to him to get to work on. It’s an adorable little Victorian Farmhouse from 1895 that’s been completely renovated. I hope that all works out.

Thursday bore a little bit of work. I got a call from a client that I had to help out because that’s just how I am. I did make time to relax, though.

Friday bore more work. This time for a couple of other clients that had things that needed to be done urgently. I’m a sucker for a payday, so I gave in and did it.

Friday afternoon I went and met with my mortgage broker to fill out an additional bunch of paperwork to get the mortgage process rolling along. I should be hearing back from the underwriter and the home appraiser any day now.

That was the gist of my vacation. I realize, in hindsight, I should have gone away somewhere. I would have been less inclined to do any work related activities if I had. Maybe next year. Maybe.