rhapsodic.org

Jet Setter

Yesterday after work Steve and I stood at the deli counter of our grocery store and asked for a half pound of this, a quarter pound of that. I admit that we had a lot of this and that to pick from, but the resulting three pounds of meats and cheeses should not have taken an hour (AN HOUR I am not even exaggerating).

I was needing some ham and cheese to snack on the airplane, and Steve needed some sandwich fixin's so that he won't starve while I'm gone.

Where am I going? Oh, right.
To Boston.
For a week.
My plane leaves at 2.30am.
That's less than four hours from now.

I had won some airline miles from my previous employer, and I needed to use them before the end of the year (or before I quit, whichever came first).

I broached the topic of these free miles with Damon and proposed we meet somewhere fantastic, just the two of us. We had a very complicated and arduous method of choosing a destination that brimmed with fabulousness, but discovered that Alaska Airlines doesn't fly to Quebec. So we started over, only this time we used the list of destinations the airline flies to.

We crossed off all the cities in Alaska (even if I did have a desire to see Bethel, why would I waste free air miles to get there?), all of the cities in California, all of the cities that required too many miles (anything with sandy beaches and coconuts), and the other cities that he or I have already been to. This quickly narrowed it down to a handful, and Boston worked its way to the top.

Neither of us have been to Boston, neither of us really know much about it. Damon knows more, but only because I haven't made the time to do any kind of research for this trip. Which is pretty stressful, because I like to be the one with Lists and Checkmarks and Itineraries.

Last night I had a little emotional meltdown there at the Fred Meyer deli counter. I've been really busy at work with the travel to Juneau and reasons surrounding that. I was feeling very overwhelmed with this new trip because: holy hell! It was only one day away! And I hadn't even thought about travel food, let alone made any Lists!

All of that stress mixed in with a healthy dose of low blood sugar and you get a Valette who alternates between almost falling asleep on her feet and eyes brimming with tears.

In other words, it was pretty awesome.

But now I'm all packed (more shorts than sweaters since the internet tells me it's been in the 60s and 70s, which is way warmer than anything Alaska has seen this summer), I've taken my 365 shot for the night, printed my boarding pass, Asked Metafilter what we should do while in Boston, turned in my French homework and gotten the assignments for the classes I will be missing, and charged my ipod and cell phone.

I'm really tired and would like nothing more but to crawl in bed, but I know that a 2 hour nap would just make me grumpier and the likelihood of my deciding to not go at all would increase dramatically.

However: Boston! What are we going to DO there for a whole week? I have no idea. But as much as I am going to miss Steve and Olive and my pillow, I am looking forward to it. If at least to cut down on the frequency of my meltdowns.