A Minor Gripe

When you're assigned overseas, you may be granted one or more instances of "R&R" (rest & recuperation) travel to break up the time in country (to, well, rest and recuperate from the stresses of daily life) where you are assigned. Each country has a designated R&R point, which is usually the nearest western-type culture (for Beijing, the R&R point is Sydney, Australia).

In most cases, you receive one R&R at the end of every year in country. (In the middle of your assignment, you instead get "Home Leave" which is a trip back to the U.S. to "re-acclimate.") At the end of D-What's language training, that was almost exactly one year in country. It was also a natural break: done with language training, not yet in her office at the embassy. Logically, it was the perfect time for her (us) to go on R&R. But no. Her boss demanded that she come into the office immediately (she was allowed to squeeze in 2 days of leave, which was our quick trip to Thailand).

So no R&R in July. Okay… makes no sense, but whatever. And one of her colleagues' Home Leave had been scheduled for August, so no overlapping allowed there because of the need to cover the bases. Understandable. So we had been told that this colleague would return to the office o/a September 8, at which point we could go on R&R. Well, this colleague decided to make additional plans, extended her Home Leave, and then asked D-What if that would be okay. Not cool.

Normally, since it was already pushed back this far, another week delay on the R&R wouldn't really make much difference. Except now it creates a conflict for me.

Yes, in the big picture it's trivial. But I'm really annoyed/disappointed that it's turning out this way: you see, in World of Warcraft, there are various "holiday" events for which there are special limited-time-only in-game events (special quests, etc.) with rewards unique to those events. Further, if you complete everything for every holiday, you receive an extra special reward. Well, I have expended no small effort to complete everything so far, as I really want that end reward. Only one of these holiday events is left – but now, the limited time for that event coincides almost exactly with our R&R. The nature of the event is such that I would need (if my math is correct) to log on for a short time each day for at least seven days of the event. Only three days of the event do not overlap with our "new" R&R plans.

Yes, I know it's "just a game," as D-What tells me frequently. But I've invested so much time and energy, the end is in sight, and I can't finish because of something out of my control. It's like a first-time marathon runner who has trained hard, runs 25 1/2 miles, and, as the finish line comes into view, gets hit by a bicyclist who strayed onto the course, and is too injured to finish.

It's a tough one to just accept and say "oh, well."