Planning and Organizing

I have been checking and checking flights day after day. Eric is giving a talk in Munich in May, and has asked Maya and me to accompany him for a week around Maya's spring break. He called his usual travel agent last week, but her prices were no better than those I had found, and she added a booking fee to the total, so I assured him I could do better. I checked prices when we arrived in New York, and they were remarkably good, but Eric and I were too tired to do anything, so I decided to check again when I arrived home. Of course the prices were hundreds of dollars more!!! I panicked and almost decided to forgo the trip altogether, but kept checking and checking. Suddenly a better price appeared, not as good as the price I found in New York, but definitely better than I had seen over the past few days. I was worried that I would lose it and bought a ticket for Maya and myself. Eric will have his trip paid for, so he could spend whatever on it....and did in fact get on the same flight to Munich (but is returning a few days later than Maya and I). Whew!!!!! I spend an inordinate amount of time looking up prices and hemming and hawing about which flight to take. It is such a relief to make a decision. Only after I purchased the ticket did I start looking at flights to Edmonton to see my parents, which were about the price of the flights to Munich, and to Hawaii for my annual psychiatry meeting, again the same price as Munich tickets. I realize that I did better than expected! The prices are getting higher and higher, probably because of the Mid East unrest and the threat to oil production and distribution.

Suddenly the next few months appear full of activity, which is fine because I like to be moving constantly and staying home for weeks on end gets me restless and ready to go. Maya and I go for a short ski trip to Salt Lake in three weeks (I used frequent flyer miles for the trip and the ski resort tickets are already paid for and I stay with friends so it is totally affordable) and then I fly to Montreal to see Tara's play (which she is directing). The next weekend is devoted to a meeting in Scottsdale (eating disorders). I want to fly to Edmonton to see my parents for my mother's birthday, but the cost is outrageous and I want to bring Maya with me. We fly to Munich at the end of April and my Hawaii trip is mid May. Eric is in Cape Cod in June/early July so we will be visiting him weekends for that, and I was hoping to travel to Italy in July, but the prices are again out of this world, so I will be searching and searching some more over the next few weeks.

These travel plans all make me very happy. The more I more, the more I see, the more adventure I have, the happier I am.....so this is all good, albeit the planning and organizing is often painful....