bunchofgrapes

At the end of April, I flew out to San Francisco for a few days of vacation. My cousin flew down from Portland and we met up at the airport. She definitely got the better flight deal but I didn't care. I love San Francisco.

( Take me to the city by the bay )

I leave tomorrow. Hopefully, I won't be running for the plane. There's just so much to do at work and I hate leaving it on someone else but dang. I've already worked so many hours this pay period that I can take off half of Tuesday and all of Wed - Fri without recording anything. And I'll still have overtime. Except I don't get paid for overtime so it all means nothing.

So anyway, while I was printing off my boarding pass this afternoon, United offered me an upgrade to first class. So I took it. I'm waitlisted so there's no guarantee I'll get it but what's the point of having all these frequent flyer miles if I can't use them? If I don't get it, I'm in Economy Plus so it's all good. But I like first class better. Reminds me of all the flying I did when I was a kid. My first solo flight was at the tender age of 5. I flew from Tulsa to Chicago where I met my mom and new stepfather and then we flew to Montreal. It was the late 60's and people still dressed up for flights and flight attendants were still called stewardesses. I got wings from the captain and sodas and snacks and got to sit up at the front, with the stewardess. That was the start of my flying career. I was one of those kids who got shuffled between divorced parents and my dad lived in Cleveland and then DC so I logged a lot of air miles. I loved flying and planes so much that for most of my elementary school years, I wanted to be a pilot. I even did some sort of airplane cockpit thing for my 5th grade science fair project. It was lame but I loved to sit and stare at the poster of the cockpit.

I am officially on vacation. Well, sort of officially. I'm still checking email and approving a few things but I did the last of the actual work on Saturday. I'm off until Monday and then it will be time to do end of the month reporting.

It will also be time when those gods with an evil sense of humor put the clock on ramming speed and the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is practically non-existant. Have you noticed it too? I always think I have a bit of a leg up on Christmas and then Thanksgiving is over, I blink, and it's a week before Christmas and I'm wondering what the hell happened. This is why I hate Christmas. I hate the rush. I want to be able to slow down time. Maybe even stop it for a couple of days. I want to enjoy the season and bake breads and shop in the cold (sorry, but I can never live in a place where it's above 60 degrees for Christmas) for the perfect gift and wrap presents while watching "Miracle on 34th Street". Instead I'm baking breads in the evening after work, racing to the nearest drug store for gift cards to send to my parents in OK, cursing the warming trend in December, and doing a craptastic wrapping job in the small back bedroom.

Last year I went to the Christmas service with my VA parents (I should start referring to them as rents #1) at their church. I don't attend their church, or any church, but I go because it's family and usually the service is nice. Last year they invited a tenor, Carl Tanner, to sing and it was extraordinary. I mean, I was moved in a way that sort of redeemed Christmas for me. Unfortunately, it was a one-time event and buying a CD just doesn't replicate hearing a performance from a few feet away. But maybe going to dinner downtown with friends, seeing DC all decked out for Christmas and cleaned up for the impending chaos inauguration will do it.

I hope so. Because I really want to like Christmas.

I'm off all of this week. I'm calling it my Spring Break because it always irks me that people with kids take off for Spring Break while those of us without kids don't. So I am. It's raining today--one of those perfect spring storms with rolling thunder and thankfully, no cloud to ground lightning. I love it! It's supposed to do this tomorrow too. Fine with me. I still need to do some yard work but I got the grass mowed yesterday so the yard looks so nice and green with the rain. I'm meeting a friend for lunch and have a couple of errands to run tomorrow but other than that, I have no plans during this break except maybe do some stuff around the house and yard, watch hockey and CSI (yay for Brass and Drops!) and write. It's the perfect vacation.

( Caps Hockey )

Pinched this from wiccagirl24

Your Dominant Intelligence is Intrapersonal Intelligence

Reflective and thoughtful, you enjoy spending time alone. You are good at analyzing yourself - and knowing your true feelings. Totally self aware, you are in tune with your dreams and desires. A spiritual and philopsophical person, your inner calmness inspires and helps others. You would make a great philosopher, researcher, or theorist.

Don't know about being a great philosopher but the rest is pretty much me.

Trying to get a beach trip together for six people is something akin to herding cats. No joke. I have a co-worker friend who organized a cruise for 36 of her relatives. How the hell did she do it? We're four weeks away and still don't have hotel rooms.

My older cat, Emma, snores. Loudly. I woke up around 5am to this weird-ass sound and realized it was her. She was asleep under the bed--and under my head.

I wish I could write. I'm getting frustrated because I can't seem to get started again. In my other fandom I have these writing dues every quarter. I have to come up with something by Thursday. No pressure...

Tomorrow is the big day. I leave at 10:30am, arrive in Ft. Lauderdale around 1:00 and then take a three+ hour drive down to Tavernier, which is closer than Islamorada. I look like a poster child for Best Buy what with all the electronic stuff I'm dragging down there. Oh, well. I'll have a computer but no internet access for a whole week. What did people do before the interent? I seem to recall having a lot more free time. I also remember writing fics in a spiral notebook.

And that, my friends, is why I bought another laptop to take on vacation.