Go Away!

Just thought I'd pass along that Congress (yes, our friends down in Washington), along with the Travel Industry Association and Expedia.com, have declared today, October 23, "National Plan Your Vacation Day." As if any of us really needed to be told to get away and take time off from work.

Then again, apparently some of us do need to be told. According to a survey done by Expedia, one-third of American workers (that's 33%) do not always take all their vacation days. In fact, it's estimated that U.S. employed adults will leave a cumulative total of 574 million vacation days untaken in 2006 (an average of four per person). And what's most amazing is that employed adults in the U.S. receive the fewest vacation days among all the countries surveyed (an average of 14 in the U.S. vs 39 in France, for example. Thirty-nine!!!).

Personally, after all the bad news I heard last week (not just this, but other stuff I can't post about just yet), a vacation sounds like a great idea. Who's with me?