What is it about vacations?

     As I watched the "Sunday Morning" television show from my kitchen, that question was asked...what is it about vacations?...and it caused me to pause in making my breakfast.
     The narrator said it's the anticipation, the planning, the looking forward to.  The anticipation is more than the actual vacation, he said.  The anticipation of joy, he said, is what makes happiness before, during, and after.
     I took my cup of coffee to the sofa and watched the rest of that two-or-three minute segment, but I really wasn't paying much attention after all.  My mind was running wild.  Those words - anticipation of joy - had run a bell with me.
     Today is my last day at work for about three weeks.  I am anticipating the joy of my vacation.
     I am anticipating a visit from my daughter, who will stay with me for two weeks and three days.  I have the time counted out almost to the hour before she flies back to her home.
     The anticipation of joy with her is revealed in the way I clean my home, the purchase of food she likes, the way I fill a gift tote for her, and how long the list of things we want to do has become.
     The anticipation also includes actually seeing her again, touching her cheek, holding her hand, hugging her tightly.  The anticipation includes long, intimate talks about family and friends, jobs and hardships, dreams and future plans for both of us.  And it includes the silences we'll share as we write and read and listen to music together.
     It won't be a vacation at the beach or some resort.  It won't be a vacation of traveling and sightseeing. 
     It is the anticipation of staying home, watching favorite DVDs, drinking cold tea on the front porch, knitting and crocheting together.  It's the anticipation of little things...eating together, washing dishes side by side, cutting pictures out of magazines and gluing them in our dream books, and talking about stuff.  It's a smile, a knowing look, a whisper.
     What is it, the narrator asked, about vacations?  To each his own, I suppose.
     No matter what kind of vacation it is, the anticipation of joy can be extreme, with happiness before and during and after, and with the planning of the next one to come.
     Oh, great anticipation!  The next vacation!
     I'm gone now.  See you later!