I don't, in fact, need a vacation...

One of the perks of working for a college is that I get a ton of vacation time. In addition to a number of payed holidays - usually two days for each vacation day, plus the days between Christmas and New Years - we get a ton of vacation days. Because I've been there over 5 years, I get 3 weeks of vacation, 3 personal days, and a floating holiday.

And I use almost none of it - I usually end up losing a good chunk of it because I'm "maxed out" and can't accumulate any more.

That's not to say I don't take any vacation days. This year so far, I took off the day before Easter, plus a couple hours to get my toilet replaced and a couple more hours to pick up some stuff I bought at an auction. I took the day after July 4th off, and I'll probably take off another day to do some outlet shopping, and a few more hours off to get some work done on my house (btw, if you know a fence guy or a gutter guy in Baltimore, feel free to let me know).

My boss has been on me to use some of my time. I don't really see much reason to. I'll take time off if I have to in order to do something I need or want to do, or if it's around a holiday that I'm going up to visit the parents, because then I don't have to worry about rushing to/from. But I can't really see taking days off just for the sake of taking time off - if I would just end up spending the day sitting around the house watching TV and surfing the internet, I might as well be at work and get something done. If I had kids who wanted to go to Disney World or a wife who wanted a romantic getaway, I could see taking time off. But I don't really like to take vacations alone, nor do I really like spending money on things that aren't material.

I also figure it's good for my career not to take time off - I may not be the smartest guy at work, or the guy who is the best with dealing with people, but at least I'm there. There's more chance that I'll be around for an important meeting or help someone out if I actually come to work. Plus I figure it's not really fair to my coworkers for me just to take off and do nothing, plus there are a bunch of things that I'm the only person or one of very few people who do, so if I'm not around it won't get done (and will have to get done when I come back).

They say vacations are supposed to be relaxing, but I think I'm more stressed if I'm not at work, because I worry about what I'm missing. Plus I don't have the world's most robust social life, so work is where I get to talk to people, to interact with other humans - if I'm not at work, I'm just at home with the cat, which isn't exactly healthy.