If the Fates Want Me to Be Rich, Why Do They Offer Up So Many Expensive Travel Options?
Portland trip is coming up - just over a week left before I head out. Car still isn't tuned up, but I've got an appointment for next Tuesday. Hopefully nothing is tragically wrong with her, and she will be fit to drive come Saturday (or Sunday, depending on family plans).
I bought myself a copy of Fodor's guide for the Pacific Northwest, and just flipping through it has me excited. I want to go see the naturey things that I won't have time for - Crater Lake, for example, and the Painted Hills (fossils!) and Mount St. Helena and the Ginkgo Petrified Forest. And of course I want to head up to Seattle and wander around, possibly stop by the BW office up there and meet the night crew (I am such a BW geek!). And I want to go drinking, and exploring Portland, and hit Powell's (heaven!) and see my friends and just hang out and have a good fucking time.
And then there's the wedding bonegoddess invited me to the day I'm supposed to be driving back down to SF so that I can be well-rested for work the following night. I'm heavily leaning towards going, and just being a basketcase at work after a 10- to 12-hour drive back down.
Vacation? Relaxing? As if. I have a feeling that sleep is going to be minimal on this excursion.
And I'm already thinking of the next potential trip. A friend of mine who lives in Austin has been pestering me to go visit him for years now (I've never been to Texas ... it kind of scares me), and has offered up the Austin City Limits music festival as a good excuse to reel me in. The lineup seems pretty good, and the temptation to see a state I've never been to before is great. Since it's a weekend, I'd only have to take a couple days off work, instead of a whole week, and we don't have to go all three days, so I can actually go and tour around Austin a little. The clincher: turns out I already have one of the days off that I'd have to take, for the Rosh Hashanah quasi (yay Jews!). That's one less day of PTO I have to eat up. It's like the Fates are telling me I must go.
Of course, it's also the weekend right after the Reno trip with my coworkers, so cash would be tight. A round trip ticket (no way am I driving this one ... gotta fly it) will run me about $200 - $300, and the tickets for the festival itself are going to be between $100 and $200 total. And that doesn't count feeding my face and any extra fun/souvenir things I decide to do/buy. I think I'll tell my friend to grab me tickets, ask for some days off, and see how my expenses are after Portland before buying my flight (perhaps I should plan to stay longer, for more exploring fun).
Gah! Exciting! My camera is going to be so abused this year. I guess I really will have to upgrade my Flickr account.
I bought myself a copy of Fodor's guide for the Pacific Northwest, and just flipping through it has me excited. I want to go see the naturey things that I won't have time for - Crater Lake, for example, and the Painted Hills (fossils!) and Mount St. Helena and the Ginkgo Petrified Forest. And of course I want to head up to Seattle and wander around, possibly stop by the BW office up there and meet the night crew (I am such a BW geek!). And I want to go drinking, and exploring Portland, and hit Powell's (heaven!) and see my friends and just hang out and have a good fucking time.
And then there's the wedding bonegoddess invited me to the day I'm supposed to be driving back down to SF so that I can be well-rested for work the following night. I'm heavily leaning towards going, and just being a basketcase at work after a 10- to 12-hour drive back down.
Vacation? Relaxing? As if. I have a feeling that sleep is going to be minimal on this excursion.
And I'm already thinking of the next potential trip. A friend of mine who lives in Austin has been pestering me to go visit him for years now (I've never been to Texas ... it kind of scares me), and has offered up the Austin City Limits music festival as a good excuse to reel me in. The lineup seems pretty good, and the temptation to see a state I've never been to before is great. Since it's a weekend, I'd only have to take a couple days off work, instead of a whole week, and we don't have to go all three days, so I can actually go and tour around Austin a little. The clincher: turns out I already have one of the days off that I'd have to take, for the Rosh Hashanah quasi (yay Jews!). That's one less day of PTO I have to eat up. It's like the Fates are telling me I must go.
Of course, it's also the weekend right after the Reno trip with my coworkers, so cash would be tight. A round trip ticket (no way am I driving this one ... gotta fly it) will run me about $200 - $300, and the tickets for the festival itself are going to be between $100 and $200 total. And that doesn't count feeding my face and any extra fun/souvenir things I decide to do/buy. I think I'll tell my friend to grab me tickets, ask for some days off, and see how my expenses are after Portland before buying my flight (perhaps I should plan to stay longer, for more exploring fun).
Gah! Exciting! My camera is going to be so abused this year. I guess I really will have to upgrade my Flickr account.