On the Road

So, it's May. I'm three quarters through my education, I managed to get through my exams in one piece (I hope) and I came out of third-year with very some very respectable journalism grades. Seems like I should be in a pretty good spot, except--oh yeah, we're in the middle of a recession. Like eight (nine?) percent of the rest of the Ontario work force, I haven't been able to find any sort of paying employment (save for a couple days' work painting swimming pools in the hot sun--a drop in the tuition bucket for a greater chance of skin cancer). My resume is pretty awesome, too. I can fold clothes and check facts like nobody's business.

So there it is. My good friend Marie (also unemployed) and I have decided to find a silver-living in our dark rainclouds of debt and embark on a vacation. I know I was at first unfamiliar with the term, so for any other country-starved, stressed out students/workaholics out there, here's the OED definition.

VACATION
noun
a. Freedom, release, or rest from some occupation, business, or activity.
b. Without const. Freedom or respite from work, etc.; time of rest or leisure.
c. Leisure for, or devoted to, some special purpose; hence, occupation, business. Obs.
d. Absence from duty or from some usual post; also, a sum paid for absence or exemption.

Oh yeah. It's been years since I've had a vacation, or even left the city for that matter, and I'm going a little stir crazy. Regardless, Marie and I are doing the world's cheapest vacation: Road Trip! It will involve a lot of nutella sandwiches and sour keys and sleeping on strangers' couches. We're heading first to Boston, then to New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, Charleston, Savannah and finally to Gainesville, Florida, where we'll spend the bulk of our trip.

As part of my poor New Year's resolution to start blogging more, I will be chronicling the trip here, right in your own backyard internet browser. Check back here as often as you suspect I might have access to free Wifi. And if anyone's got any suggestions of Can't Misses along this route, please let me know!

You can also follow my Twitter updates @mawilson.

I'll leave you off with a picture of my kitten, Apple, who will be having her own little vacation at grandma's house in Burlington. Currently, she is sleeping in my old bedroom closet, which is something she wouldn't be allowed to do at my apartment in Toronto. So begins what I imagine will be two weeks of spoilage. I have been in Burlington visiting for just a few days now and already my mom has removed the lemon juice from her Bad Cat Bottle (because it was too mean), changed the setting on the bottle from "squirt" to "mist" (because it would hurt her otherwise, apparently) and given her something in the neighbourhood of six kitten treats per day (because they're small...Newsflash Mom, she's a small kitten. Normally she gets one, if she's lucky).

I suspect Apple will have a better time than I will.