Home and back to the grind

I haven't blogged in a while and not feeling super inspired but I'd better put a few thoughts down. It looks like we made it back from Walt DisneyWorld in one piece. Quite the drive! It's about 15 or 16 hours. We stayed the night in Tallahassee both coming and going. I had hotel points from all the traveling I've been doing for work so I was able to pay for two rooms (my parents and us) on the way there.

Every little bit helps! For those who have never been, WDW is very expensive. But it's not without justification. It is probably one of the best, if not THE best theme parks in the world. It's basically supply & demand and they can certainly demand the price. Depending on how much you're willing to spend, a week for a family of 4 can run you between $4,000 and 12,000 after you factor in travel, sleeping arrangements, entrance fees, food, etc. We stayed in the Contemporary which is the cheapest of the hotels on the monorail line. It's a very nice place to stay and SO convenient. In fact the monorail is probably one of our favorite things about the WDW experience.

Karen will Probably blog about our trip (she'd better), so I won't dig too deeply into the details, but we had a fabulous time. What I will say however is that we have decided at this point we're not addicted to WDW as are many of the people we know. We'll probably go again in 3 years or so for the kids, but our thoughts of returning for a wedding anniversary are souring; we'll probably go somewhere else.

Work has been very stressful as I've been given an assignment that is already fully underway (I'm taking over for someone who has to take a leave of absence). It's a role where I have little experience but the assignment is highly visible to the client and critical in terms of how they view my company's ability to delivery quality & value. It's a fairly short but intense assignment; I could feasibly be through by March, possibly stay on another year for the next release if things go well (I have doubts about my abilities but we'll see). My vacation days for the WDW trip had to be trimmed so I could visit the Netherlands to learn the job assignment from the person who is leaving. And I need to get right back to it, so I will not be taking any vacation days this coming week. I'm also not expecting much relaxation around Christmas and New Year's Day.

Anyway, the trip to WDW was much needed but not the relaxing experience it could have been due to the anxiety I'm feeling about doing a good job on this assignment. I haven't felt this much anxiety about work (or school) in many, many years; maybe never. I'm hoping things go well and it was worry for nothing. Wish me luck! :D