VACATION: VACATION DESTINATION

To the editor:

I like to think of myself as Bohemian and eccentric. My husband says I'm stubborn and illogical. But since eccentric actually means slightly off-center, we could both be right.

I was looking through your paper and noticed all the back-to-school supplies that are going on sale. That means that vacation time is over for most people.

Being eccentric, or slightly off center as the case may be, my vacation will be starting soon.

When the people I work with realize, perhaps with great relief, that I will be missing from their presence for the long span of five days, they ask, "Where are you going on vacation?"

They have already been on vacation and made the rounds of Six Flags and Nashville and to visit relatives in Louisiana. I'll be going the same place I always go on vacation.

The place I will be going for vacation is a place where I normally am not able to spend a lot of time. When I'm not there, which is often, I want to be there.

I won't spend a lot of time on the road getting there. I don't have to worry about whether I forgot to pack anything. I know I'll have my toothbrush and deodorant and shampoo. It won't cost must to stay there. The bed will be comfortable. It's a place I'm familiar with. Everything is convenient. It's filled with things I like.

I don't have to ask anyone where the bathroom is. I know where it is. It's not across the street or down the stairs and to the right. I don't have to wait in line with a toddler who is squirming and really needed to go 10 minutes ago.

I have food at hand and something to cook it on. If I don't want to cook, there are places to go close by that are happy to feed me.

I can relax and do the things I like to do.

My home is where I will be spending my vacation. It's where I go when I'm off work. It's where I go when I don't have errands to run or children to take here and there.

I never could understand the logic of working hard and spending a lot of time and money to buy and maintain a home, fixing it up just the way you want it, making it comfortable and relaxing and turning it into the place to go where you can get away from the pressures of the job and dealing with the public and then closing the doors and going somewhere else to get away from it all.

I am Bohemian and eccentric, or stubborn and illogical, depending on whom you ask. But come vacation time, I'll pick up my purse, close the door on my workplace, get in my car and sigh at the thought of going where I have just spent eight hours longing to be. And I will be smiling at the thought of being able to spend five whole days and nights there: home.

SANDRA FANN

Jackson