What I Did On My Summer Vacation

A Note from SSG:

Something that surprises me constantly about this crazy little thing called blogging is how much I look forward to reading about your lives.  I can't wait to hear about the day's happenings in places like New York and Oklahoma, India or Illinois because the writer's voice speaks to me--often times cracking me up and making my co-workers call out "what's so funny?"  Kristabella, of Full of Snark, is one such person for me.  When I read her blog I feel, like we're hanging out in a Chicago bar recapping the day's events over cocktails before heading to a Cubs game.  And that's when I realize the thing I hate about blogging.  You people are entirely too far away.

Hi there, SSG readers.  I'm Kristabella and I blog over here.  And let me tell you the love-hate battle I have with guest blogging.  Part of me always agrees to do it for the fact that I am always willing to whore myself out on unsuspecting people.  But then there is the part of me who then freaks out after I agree to guest post because I'm OK posting inane drivel on my own site.  Because at the very least, my mom will still read and comment and make me feel like I'm the best writer in the world. 

But when you write on someone else's site, with a whole bunch of different and new readers, they may read your guest post and wonder why on Earth anyone in their right mind would ever have asked you to be a guest blogger.  THE PRESSURE.

And yet, I still continue to agree to write these guest blogs and then freak the hell out over what to write.

So this time, I decided that I would try and talk about vacations, since our heroine SSG is off on a fabulous vacation.  And since it is about that time of year when summer vacation is ending and school is starting again, I thought I would talk about my summer vacation.  Well not this one.  Because this summer I got laid off and I have spent it looking for a new job.  I am going to talk about a summer vacation of yore.

See, I used to work for the San Francisco 49ers.  For six years.  And when you work in professional football, your summer vacation is basically the month of June and part of July.  For six years, I spent most of my summers working 12-14 hour days in the hot sun of Stockton, California for 49ers training camp.  Vacation ended around July 5th.  Every year.

Now, it wasn't so bad.  Well, it depends on how you describe "wasn't so bad."  Now see they were long days.  And Stockton, CA will routinely be in the 100's in July and August.  And practice was during some of the hottest times of the day.  And it was three weeks of the same day over and over.  It was my personal Groundhog Day except there was no Bill Murray.

But then there were the not so bad parts.  One, we got to wear shorts and t-shirts to work every day.  And team-issued gym shoes.  Which means one, I didn't have to think about what to wear every day and two, it was comfy and allowed me to get a farmer's tan.

But really, the best part would have to be the ice tubs.  They were garbage cans filled up with ice and cold, cold water.  They were placed along side of the practice field for the players to jump in after a long workout.  It helped keep their legs fresh.

So after standing out in the sun watching a bunch of hot sweaty athletes run around and tackle each other, thee hot, sweaty athletes would get into the ice tubs.  With not much on.  So while I was hot and sweaty myself, and my feet and back were killing me from standing around in the same place for hours, it would definitely be all worth it to see a perfect specimen of a man standing waist deep in a garbage can full of ice.  And spend countless minutes staring at a chiseled running back sitting in the ice, with cold water droplets running down his enormous biceps and his washboard abs.

Thankfully drooling on myself really helped cool me off.

Hopefully SSG will have a much better time on her vacation!