leaving...on a jet plane

My girlfriend's birthday is on Sunday June 21st. When I called her this week to arrange a birthday lunch, she told me she was off to the Phillipines, and China, and Hong Kong! She will be back on July 7th.
So, our birthday celebrations will just have to wait. Darn! I wish I was going with her!
She goes to the Phillipines every year for business. Once, about 10 years ago, she asked me to go with her. I've never been to that part of the world, and it would have been perfect to have her as a tour guide for the trip. I wasn't seeing anyone at the time, and was seriously thinking about going. But, I couldn't get the time off of work. I always regretted not quitting my job, and going anyways.
I did that when I was 19. I quit my job to go to Europe with my sister. That job wouldn't give me the time off either, so I quit. But, things look very different when you are 19, and don't have a mortgage!
Anyways, I do regret it...and considering the job laid me off a few years later, I really should have just quit. But, looking back, there was no way to know I would have been laid off anyways (I thought I was going to retire working for that company!). And when you are single and have a mortgage, you tend to be a little less carefree about quitting your job just to go to the Phillipines for 2 weeks.