This is looking way far ahead, but it gives us something to anticipate.

We will be going away on vacation for a full week.  This is something we have never done before.  We usually stay away for three or four days at the most so it’s sort of daunting to think about.  We will be heading north and staying in New Hampshire for three nights, then heading down to Connecticut for two nights and then home. 

What we are missing are the one or two nights on the way up to New Hampshire.  We want to stay in upstate New York or the very south of Vermont but can’t decide where to go.

We looked at this place - which looks totally fabulous and is co-owned by Kate Pierson, ferchrissake! - but we would really like to share that experience with friends sometime.  And they can’t make it the weekend we’d be there.

So what do we do?  Where do we stay?  Who will help us???

OK, granted, our vacation isn’t until the end of July and we do have plenty of time to figure it out, but it weighs heavy on my mind!  Poor me.

My senses are being assaulted.  And I blame it on my lack of exposure to certain things lately.  Case in point.

I used to smoke way back when.  I quit many years ago but ever since then, I have enjoyed the smell of (most) cigarettes.  Nowadays, chances are good that wherever you go, the smoking section is outside.  It is so where I work as well.  I used to pass through a pleasant cloud of smoke when entering or exiting any of the buildings.  But they moved the smoking areas and now I never pass through the second-hand goodness.  The people who go outside to smoke on my floor have to pass right behind my desk to get to where they’re going and on their way back to their desks.  We have an open environment (I mean REALLY open) and whenever they pass by me on their way back, I smell the smoke all over them.

Only now it doesn’t smell so good.  I’m finding myself being offended by these people who walk behind me.  And I think it’s because I’m never exposed to smoke any more.

And another thing.

When we cook, we have started (for some reason) to back off on the salt.  The flavoring comes from other ingredients - pepper, fresh herbs, etc.  And we don’t eat a whole lot of canned things or salty snacks as a general rule.  And now?  Give me a Wheat Thin and I’m scrambling for a bucket of water to wash down the extreme saltiness.  The last time I had a Wheat Thin, I couldn’t eat more than a couple.  It bothered me a whole lot.

I have become quite the delicate flower. 

I guess it’s healthier for me but it makes me feel like I should be carrying little lace gloves and covering my mouth and nose with them and saying in a teeny tiny voice, “Oh my!”