Vacations.

My last extended vacation was just about one year ago this week. I used to take at least two, if not more, weeks every year to go on vacation but last year I took practically every vacation day I had in AW. When I did go out into the RW, all I'd do is stare at stuff I'd like to recreate in AW. "Wow! I could do that river!" "Hey! The new rocks in aw would be perfect for that!" Does that sound bad? Am I worried? Well....Lets look at things in an ordered way here.

The Oxford dictionary of current English defines vacation as: (1. -n. fixed holiday period (2. U.S. holiday (what us yanks call "Holiday" Y'all) (3. vacating or being vacated (hhmmm....I don't think this is the definition I'm looking for here, LOL) -v U.S.: take a holiday. It defines holiday as: (1. -n extended period of recreation, especially spent away from home or traveling (More on this in a moment);break from work (2. day of festivity or recreation when no work is done, especially a religious festival etc -v spend a holiday. The comment "spent away from home or travelling", as far as I'm concerned, can mean VR just as the writers of the dictionary probably had the RW in mind when they wrote that. Think about it: People being in AW means time away from something that, even if it's not worse, at least is less desirable than where they are they logging into (unless of course they work for COF and are just logging in to go to work, but we'll save that subject for another column).

I come to AW for a variety of reasons. I need a place to go when the RW starts me thinking about raiding the local gunshops. I need a place to go when my boss says for the umpteenth time when I go to her with one of our hourly disasters, "Use your own good judgement". That seems to be the only thing our managers have to say in our company anymore to make the big bucks, but I'm digressing. I need a place to go when I can't get out because there's two feet of snow with 3 inches of ice on top. But the biggest and best reason by far is, I'M ADDICTED TO AW!!!! I HAVE to have my daily fix!! There's NO two ways about it gang, I'm hopeless. I'm weak. I NEED INTERVENTION!!!

Have I got my point across yet? Heheh So there you have it. Vacations to me mean more time for AW. You say I need to get out into the RW more? You think that I will become warped over time without regular exposure to it? Think again Ace! Just spend five minutes in front of the TV watching the national news and you'll see that the RW is something that I've been looking for an escape from for a very long time and now that I've found it, I AIN'T letting it go for nuttin'!

Wonderful, unconditional friendships, exploring places that could never exist in the RW, the ability to perform audio & visual artistry beyond imagination. How could I ever find anything else better than this? hhmmm....maybe full tactile body suits?