The Worst Thing About Going on Vacation

…is coming back.

thankfully we had the foresight to return on a friday night, which gave us an entire weekend to recover. (and by "us," i really mean "me," because my son is on summer vacation and my husband took an additional week off.)

now that i've made it past monday, i do think returning to work after time off — especially time off like this past trip, during which i was totally checked out of work, which admittedly isn't always the case when i travel — is something i build up more in my head. of course, my start was a bit less bumpy than usual, given that i could sleep in and didn't have to wake up at 7am like i would if my kid were in school. but even with all the returning-to-work-after-two-weeks-off dread, i managed to get to inbox zero and even accomplish some additional work, and i wasn't completely drained and hating life by the end of it.

tuesday was a different story.

i didn't work, but that's because i had a few big items on my to-do list. first item? renew my son's u.s. passport. no big deal, right?

well, for one, the paperwork required is annoying and requires a lot of scanning. we needed his original birth certificate, both of his passports, both of our passports, and copies of all of them. plus the application, a photo, a prepaid envelope with very specific instructions, and proof of advance payment. i took care of all that over the weekend, so we were good to go.

but then came the actual getting there part. and as anyone who has been to the embassy in berlin knows, it's not exactly centrally located, so every trip there (thankfully only once every five or so years now) is at least one hour and no less than three modes of transportation from where i live to there. and then the wait. and then the actual process. and then the return. this can easily eat up half a day. (also let's not forget how this corner of berlin is incredibly dead so it's not like you can even do retail therapy or go to a nice cafe or museum or whatever after. sorry if you live there; i'm sure the nature is nice or whatever, but clayallee and its surrounds are boring.)

thankfully, the actual appointment is the easiest part (assuming you have all your ducks in a row, which i always do). it took about five minutes and we were on our way, along with a promise we'd have the passport in four weeks.

to reward ourselves for a job well done (because let's face it, adulting is hard and we all need a little motivation), we went to dolores for burritos.

then back home, where i immediately decided i needed to take a nap (there's a reason one of my nicknames is napalye). and then an hour and some change later, i woke up prepared to tackle the second adult task of the day: german taxes.

i've been doing my own taxes (and my husband's) for more than a decade, and each year i get better at it, so this only took a couple hours. it also helps that elster's functionality has improved over the years (and for those asking, elster is the name of the german tax program, and elster means magpie, and oh isn't it ironic, don't ya think?)

in any case, our german taxes are done, and now i just have to do my u.s. taxes, don't remind me, plus send off paperwork for canadian citizenship (with any luck). but that's a story for another day.