A couple of months ago my girlfriend was invited to go to this 1-year-old birthday party hosted by a friend of hers. Of course she really wanted me to come with her and of course I didn’t want to go. What am I going to do at a one-year-old birthday party? It’s probably going to be loud with a million kids running around doing my head in. I rather stay at home. But she said there was going to be a BBQ and beers and these are things I enjoy allot so I decided (reluctantly) to go with her.

Arriving at the party it wasn’t what I expected at all. No kids to be seen accept the one. The food was great and they even had a place where you could draft your own cold beer. Very soon I made an unexpected friendship with the grandpa of the 1-year-old who works in IT (like me) drinking beer and talking about our jobs.

The party was supposed to end at 6, but when the time came to leave I didn’t want to go and the grandfather didn’t want me to leave either. To the annoyance of his/my wife/girlfriend we talked to till 8 drinking beer before I was physically dragged away by my girlfriend. I still was having a great time! Both women were mad…I’m pretty sure we both got the same speech afterwards.

Holidays are the worst

In 3 days we are leaving for Sardinia. Not very long, just 4 days. It’s an utter hell I’m in for the last couple of days. The stress of leaving is horrible. Can’t stand it. It’s the same stress I feel when I have to go out to a party, but way worse.

I need to do a ton of stuff before we go. I can’t find peace in my mind and its racing all the time. What if someone important calls? What if there is an emergency at a client and I’m not there? I need to lock the house. What if I forget my passport? What do I take with me?

My girlfriend has been looking forward to this trip for 2 months. I wish I could feel the same but I can’t. The fact that I have to leave destroys all preholiday fun.

I’m just waiting for that moment we are in the airport because I know only then this feeling of agony will go. It’s been like this my whole live. The moment I’m at the airport I know it’s out of my hands and that gets rid of all the stress.

Reducing the preholiday agony for the first time.

This trip is the first time I managed to reduce the agony to only a couple of days. It was pretty simple to do actually. I just didn’t get involved. She planned the whole trip for us, she figured out where to go, she looked up the flight, she found the Airbnb and we will rent a car at the airport.

I’m pretty sure now that I hate planning things. She loves it and this works for me. She let me know how much everything was and I pay my share and that was it. (I’m lucky that I know she will always look for good deals.)
So right now I don’t know absolutely nothing about Sardine except that it’s an Italian island where I will arrive a proximity around 19:30. What a wonderful idea. Now I just have to survive the next couple of days.

Mark

ps. writing this i could help to look up some pictures of the places.

holy shit, i'm going here!