The Cure for Boredom is Curiosity.

I'm going to Alaska.

It's a 7-day cruise from Anchorage to Vancouver. We decided that since it's a southbound trip, we'll head to Anchorage a few days early and play. Then possibly play for an extra day in Vancouver. Now, I have to go make boarding reservations for the dog & cat.

yarbiedoll I'll fill you in on some of the other stuff later - like the difference between cruise only, land and sea, and cruise with land excursions. The last 2 should seem the same thing, but they aren't.

So I was bitching on Friday about RTL springing an out of the country work trip on me that happens to occur on the same dates that we had planned to go to the East Coast for a little vacation. Of course I was correct when I said that RTL probably hadn't told the guy who wants her to travel that she had prior committments. She just suggested that they look at alternate dates because she couldn't be out of the office too much and too close together. Let me laugh at that - ha ha ha ha ha. Seriously, since she started this new job approximately 10 months ago, the only vacation time she has taken was the 3 days two weeks ago. I'm not including the 2 weeks that the agency was closed during Christmas because she worked during that time too. Wait! She worked 2 out of the 3 days she took off AND her boss made her take time off because they can only bill so many hours per person per month. Ummmmm, did I mention that RTL is a workaholic? Which isn't entirely a bad thing, but the last time she got overworked she broke her ankle. I look at that as the universe's way of saying "slow the fuck down."

On with the story. I knew that what would be coming next is RTL coming up with a way to convince me that East Coast is out and don't I want to go to Australia with her. Well, yeah. However, I really want to go to NC and see my family and lots of friends. So this weekend she's been working the Australia angle. I'm just trying to figure out how to cram things in. I may end up in NC by myself, which sucks because there are people who would like to see her too. I'm trying to avoid Thanksgiving and Christmas because 1) I hate holiday travel and 2) everyone else has family that they might want to see too, so it would be rude to cut in on their family time.

Then if things couldn't get more messed up, Kim and Fergal called on Sunday. They are looking at coming to SF in November - the week before Thanksgiving, to Kim's mom's house for Thanksgiving and back to SF. Which is wonderful, but . . . that fact completely kills any East Coast time in September. *sigh*

In between all this, RTL has talked to her mom and told her about the Australia trip. As it turns out Australia is the ONLY place that she has ever wanted to go. She offered to carry RTL's luggage so she could go. As RTL is telling me the story, we both kind of laugh because Mom Patty has been saying for 2 years that she was going to come to SF. She hasn't made it yet, I'm not making any bets that it will happen anytime soon. Get this though, Sunday night Mom Patty emails RTL with this:

Hello, Well Tuesday is when I can ask for my leave....so let me know dates.....I need Dana's email address......I hope you have suitcases with wheels....mom

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

I don't want her to have my email address. I know what she's going to try to do and it isn't going to work. Of course RTL explains that Mom Patty won't go unless I go because she wouldn't want to be on her own and she problaby wants to get me excited about going. She's going to try to do it through a guilt trip. What she doesn't realize is that guilt trips don't work on me anymore. Ha! I laugh in the face of danger. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Can things get more frustrating and complicated? I hope not.