today it was my turn at work to request my days off for 2008 — i’ve got 7 “personal” days and 15 “vacation” days to use (the difference is that the personal days don’t carry over to the next year, while the vacation days do).

i was able to request off for all of the days that i wanted:

– dentist appointment in february

– orioles’ opening day in march

– minis on the dragon at the end of april and the beginning of may

– rollercon at the end of july and beginning of august

– the day after my birthday (and rollercon) in august

– a vacation at the end of august (aug. 26 – 29, plus the labor-day weekend after that, so a vacation from tuesday, august 26 – monday, september 1)

i was even able to take off for the second half of the day before the 4th of july and the day before thanksgiving so that i could leave work early those days for 3.5 day weekends. halloween is on a friday so i don’t have to worry about taking that day off, and i figured i might as well take the day after my birthday off since it’s on a sunday, and i can either relax that day or use it as a day for travel back from rollercon. of course, rollercon will depend on whether or not my classes will conflict with it.

but the thing that i’m pleased the most about is how i was able to take off of work from august 26 to september 1 — 7 days!. i don’t know what the summer schedule is like for umuc, but last year it went until august 19 or so, so there shouldn’t be any classes interfering with these days off and i should be freshly graduated by then! plus, the timing is perfect for people who have been with the company for at least the last 3 years (i’ll be with the company for 5 years next year, wow): we were granted a long-term incentive that was scheduled to vest after 3 years on august 1, 2008 — depending how the company did during those 3 years we’ll get anywhere from 50% to 150% of our target bonus incentive (meaning i can get anywhere between $750 to $2250 when that’s granted). i’ve pretty much got a free flight thanks to my frequent flyer miles, so i just need to figure out where should i go to celebrate my graduation… i’ll have a little time to save up some money for the trip, and there’s two paydays between that incentive vesting and the vacation so that should give them time to pay that incentive out to give me some extra vacation spending money, i hope! if not, well, like i said, i’ll have time to save up a bit, and then i can just use the incentive money once i eventually get it to treat myself to something nice once i get back. 🙂

now i just need to figure out where i should go. i’d really like to go back to japan to visit, maybe i could get to meet homodachi! or maybe i’ll go somewhere else? i haven’t decided yet.

i also waitlisted a day off on august 25 just in case. if someone drops it later on then i’ll get that day off too, and then i could be on vacation from saturday, august 23 to monday, september 1 — 10 days!

and just think, i’ve still got 8 days or so (it’s 7 days if i end up getting august 25th off) left to use if i want!