Long Weekend, or Just "Long"?

Working for the government definitely has its perks. For one thing, basica health insurance is covered by tax payers, well for me anyway (to insure Leigh on my plan we have to pay 25% tax on the monthly cost of the benefit, so about $150/month out of my check). Another perk is that it looks good on your resume and the pace of work is generally agreeable. But the best part has to be getting bank holidays off from work. In the private sector a salaried professional might officially get these same holidays off (or not, it depends) but still find themselves having to work just to keep up with the workload or to make profits at the end of the year. When you work for the government there is no profit to be made and your offices are closed on these holidays. Sure, the odd civil servant (i.e. supervisors, judges, legislators, etc) might work from home or travel on these days, but the vast majority of us spend it sleeping in, hanging out with family, or running errands. We might even take a long weekend vacation *gasp* assuming we have the means to fly Down South for a few days or zip down to the Kenai Penninsula or up to Fairbanks. I've yet to do either, but my long weekend was still put to good use, I think.

On Saturday we enjoyed a matinee of Tru Grit (definitely worth seeing) and lunch and then chilled out at home for the afternoon. On Sunday the weather was ridiculously cold (-8F) but sunny and beautiful so we hopped in the car and drove 45 minutes south of Anchorage to Girdwood, home of the Alyeska Ski Resort. We are not skiers at all, so we had no plans to hit the mountains. Insead we just enjoyed the views along the highway and took a little driving tour through Girdwood (this took 5 minutes) before heading back toward home, stopping off for a bowl of soup in Indian along the way. On Monday Leigh had to work and I had errands, so I spent the day in grocery stores and in the kitchen, not fun, but it's nice to start the work week with plenty of healthy food around the house.

My long weekend was useful, for sure, but made me realize how much I need a break. I've been working since September without a real break from routine. During that time I haven't even left Anchorage! This is a completely foreign concept to me. Aside from my well-spent time in Europe, when I lived in Buffalo I used my weekends for day trips to Niagara Falls, Rochester, weekends in Toronto and NYC and sometimes even long weekends in Virginia (in spite of the 8 hour drive). It's amazing I ever got my school work done! Even as far back as my first days of college I spent my weekends enjoying my surroundings with trip to DC and the like, but now that I'm in a very remote place I just haven't become accustomed to hunkering down for the winter. Part of this is because a flight is required to really go anywhere, which costs money and takes time. So maybe I just need to get used to spending more money on these things for my sanity or I need to find more things to enjoy locally to get me through the long winter months.

So this weekend I'm hoping to learn to cross-country ski. That's a good start!