Seeing the world
My sister's husband died this Fall. It was a wake-up call: shit is getting REAL. I have been so busy building a better tomorrow that I often forget that all we are guaranteed is today. As a financial planner, people have been bringing me their goals. Quite a lot of them sound *wonderful*, like things I want to do, too! I help other people achieve their goals, why not mine?
A few years ago we went on a fabulous trip around Greece and Italy. It was our 25th Wedding Anniversary, but also our third try at a honeymoon trip. Why our third try? We bought out first house the week of our wedding and basically did a staycation, and the 10th Anniversary trip we'd meant to do instead of a honeymoon got co-opted by the birth of our third child. I'm good at delaying gratification... almost TOO good.
Anyway, while we were Greece we kept hearing about how the wonders of the Parthenon were stolen and taken to the British Museum. Later, in another conversation about seeing the pyramids in Egypt, someone said, "it's dirty and crowded and all the good stuff was stolen by the British." Stolen to where? The British Museum.
So I'm thinking about my desire to see the world, but also the need to limit the scope to achievable chunks, and it occurs to me that I can just go to the British Museum! I've never been to London, but it's an easy flight from Boston and I'm not doing much the second week in December, so... I decided to go. I found a Homeaway flat near the museum to rent for the week, and I started asking around to see if anyone wanted to go with me, with the understanding that it's a very limited scope trip. We are not renting a car. We are not making any side excursions. This is London *only*, and every morning will start out in the British Museum. I want to see St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London and take the Tube. I will be there in December and I will watch "Love Actually" and Doctor Who Christmas Episodes on the plane. I have read Connie Willis and watched all-things-PBS and I'm ready. I've got a Rick Steve's guidebook and a UK power converter and I bought some Pounds at the bank.
While I'm there I decided I'd like to see a play on the West End. I looked at what is showing and had pretty much settled on Kinky Boots when I discovered that Hamilton is opening up in London next week. Woot! But, of course, it's all sold out. Sad trombone. But they release a handful of tickets for the next week at noon on the Monday before. What?? So I set my alarm so I'd be at my desk at 7 AM on Monday. A few minutes before, actually. I got maps of the Victoria Palace Theater up on the ticketmaster site for all four nights I could go, splayed across my three monitors. When seats started popping up as available I kept trying to grab them, but they were whisked out of my shopping cart each time (apparently many people were trying the same thing.) After about half an hour of trying to find a seat - some would wink in and out of existence like shooting stars - I gave up and texted my husband "nope". But then, as I turned away, two seats in the middle of the theater popped up. I grabbed them and got all the way through checkout. I'm going to Hamilton!
So, I'm off to see the world on Monday.
A few years ago we went on a fabulous trip around Greece and Italy. It was our 25th Wedding Anniversary, but also our third try at a honeymoon trip. Why our third try? We bought out first house the week of our wedding and basically did a staycation, and the 10th Anniversary trip we'd meant to do instead of a honeymoon got co-opted by the birth of our third child. I'm good at delaying gratification... almost TOO good.
Anyway, while we were Greece we kept hearing about how the wonders of the Parthenon were stolen and taken to the British Museum. Later, in another conversation about seeing the pyramids in Egypt, someone said, "it's dirty and crowded and all the good stuff was stolen by the British." Stolen to where? The British Museum.
So I'm thinking about my desire to see the world, but also the need to limit the scope to achievable chunks, and it occurs to me that I can just go to the British Museum! I've never been to London, but it's an easy flight from Boston and I'm not doing much the second week in December, so... I decided to go. I found a Homeaway flat near the museum to rent for the week, and I started asking around to see if anyone wanted to go with me, with the understanding that it's a very limited scope trip. We are not renting a car. We are not making any side excursions. This is London *only*, and every morning will start out in the British Museum. I want to see St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London and take the Tube. I will be there in December and I will watch "Love Actually" and Doctor Who Christmas Episodes on the plane. I have read Connie Willis and watched all-things-PBS and I'm ready. I've got a Rick Steve's guidebook and a UK power converter and I bought some Pounds at the bank.
While I'm there I decided I'd like to see a play on the West End. I looked at what is showing and had pretty much settled on Kinky Boots when I discovered that Hamilton is opening up in London next week. Woot! But, of course, it's all sold out. Sad trombone. But they release a handful of tickets for the next week at noon on the Monday before. What?? So I set my alarm so I'd be at my desk at 7 AM on Monday. A few minutes before, actually. I got maps of the Victoria Palace Theater up on the ticketmaster site for all four nights I could go, splayed across my three monitors. When seats started popping up as available I kept trying to grab them, but they were whisked out of my shopping cart each time (apparently many people were trying the same thing.) After about half an hour of trying to find a seat - some would wink in and out of existence like shooting stars - I gave up and texted my husband "nope". But then, as I turned away, two seats in the middle of the theater popped up. I grabbed them and got all the way through checkout. I'm going to Hamilton!
So, I'm off to see the world on Monday.