vacation, all i ever wanted...

i am going on vacation.

to some, this seems rather innocuous and routine. people go on vacation all the time! some people go on a ‘big’ trip every year, with their two weeks of benefit PTO (that’s Paid Time Off for those of you who have not yet embraced GovSpeak/CorpSpeak). i, however, have not been on a vacation longer than a weekend since… well, probably since i went to Paris in February 1999.

since then, because i have a tendency to be a penny-pincher and job-hopper, i have not taken time off and gone anywhere. i’ve driven up to NJ after work, or to Rehobeth for a night, but mostly my trips are day trips. i’m excluding some days off that i’ve taken around the holidays to visit family – while i love my NY fam, it still doesn’t quite count as vacation. i’m also excluding the time i took off when i got married, cos that didn’t quite count either (and there was no honeymoon, just the wedding).

but between not having accrued vacation time and not having money to spend, my weekends on the cheap have been it. and the last weekend holiday i can recall was spent in Ocean Grove, NJ, something like two years ago.

so it’s time.

Pants was in charge of making the plans, but we clearly had different ideas about vacations, so i got involved. after some time spent hunting around the interwebs, and some storming out of the room by yours truly, a package was finally booked for the sunny beaches of Clearwater, FL.

a whole week on the beach. i bet i’ll be bored in two days.

i can’t take too much, as we’re flying (the first flight i’ve been on in ages; i am almost positive i have not flown post-9/11). so it’ll be minimal clothes (there’s a washer/dryer at the hotel), a book or two, and the necessary electronics (iPod!). i’d love to take a little knitting but i’m afraid my needles won’t make it through security. hopefully my mom has a crochet hook lying about.

now i just have to lose 10 lbs. in three weeks. i had a cookie cake yesterday so i’m off to a good start :P

why reinvent the rollying?

i had thought that folks in my profession were like the down-to-earth advertising people. i mean, the stereotype of ad people (in my head, anyway) is that they’re always just making stuff up and holding focus groups and talking corporate speak. and designers are like, sure, but how can we actually MAKE THAT EXIST? (the answer: Photoshop.)

but i realized this week that designers are in on the corp-speak nonsense, too. the moment of revelation came when i was reading a document and it called part of the design process “concepting.” i was pretty sure that wasn’t a word, so i read the description of what the “concepting” portion of the process was about... and it’s about coming up with a concept, or theme, or, more basically, an idea for the work.

see, the problem is, concept isn’t a verb.

and you may say, but cate! google isn’t a verb either, yet you embrace googling! and i say to that, yes. because google is a) made up and b) the verb form refers specifically to using google for your interwebs searching pleasure.

the problem with “concepting” as a verb is that there are ALREADY WORDS THAT MEAN THAT. you don’t just get to make up words willy-nilly, as you please, because you don’t know the english language. if you’re not a fan of using the phrase “come up with a concept,” you can also “conceive” and “conceptualize.” those are both perfectly good verbs, with the same meaning as what you’re trying to say.

and as a jargon word that only people “in the biz” know, “concepting” also sucks. it’s too long and doesn’t roll off the tongue... conCEPTing? CONcepting? how do you say that?

i’d go on about more trauma to english that i’ve witnessed lately, but i have to go back to layouting a brochure.