Tag Archives: Travel

Remember the last time I really needed a vacation and I decided I wanted to be a flight attendant*?

Life, , , , , , , , ,

In which I try to explain my travel needs.

A few people have given me light-hearted shit about being able to ‘just take a week off and go to New York,’ like travel’s a non-essential behavior and I’m somehow lucky or greedy.

brooklyn

Well, I’m not. Looked at from a certain angle, my life could easily be described as shit. I happen to choose to spend my money on travel rather than other things because I need change to keep myself from going totally batshit.

I think “normal life” is cloying. I don’t want to think that, I just do. I can’t help it. (My gravestone will say, Familiarity bred contempt. Hah!) I need to run off and do something different every so often or I can’t pull off normal life with any degree of, ah, normalcy.

Normal life is boring. When I’m bored I disengage, and when I’m disengaged I sleep a lot and drink a lot. Which, as you know, is not really a worthwhile use of a life.

I’ve realized that I’m happiest when I’m dealing with new input. If I can get out of town once or twice a year, then I can deal with my 9-6 life, I can deal with sending off a third of every paycheck to my debt reduction program, and I can deal with mundane shit like laundry and cleaning the tub and doing the same stupid things day after day after day.

There, yeah, I said it: it’s stupid shit. Get up, bathe, eat, dress, work. Get off work. Eat dinner. Fuck off for a few hours. Go to bed. On the weekends, clean all the things dirtied during the week. Rinse and repeat. Suddenly six years have gone by! What’s the fucking point? Seriously.

C, writer of a blog I read, has suddenly gone off to the Middle East to be a civilian contractor. He’s living on a military base. I can’t stand how cool he is for having decided to go do that.

It also makes me jealous. He’s getting to work and travel at the same time. Since I never managed to get my shit together I don’t have the documentation to sell my skills that way. (Am I getting old enough now to have what they call regrets?) It’d be so cool to make money in different places all the time! I’d like to try getting sick of change for a change. That’d be a new one!

I’m also jealous of her; she, another blogger I read, was, like me, all boring and stable and mildly depressed. But then she broke up and has been footloose ever since. Every time I check up on her she’s somewhere else, and while she’s always broke she is also always grateful. Change is good!

I found a traveling support/hardware deployment job on Craigslist, but it’s based out of DC and requires top secret clearance (because the actual installations take place in government offices). I wonder if I could pass top secret security clearance? (Maybe. Hard to say. I’ve done a bunch of shady shit in my life, but none of it ended up on my permanent record.) [Actually, I’ve never really done anything shady. Just drugs. I just wanted you to think I’m interesting.] Of course, other than having a decade in tech support under my belt I don’t have any certifications that would make me an ideal hardware installation candidate… all I have is maturity (ahem) and an unfettered availability to travel. I wonder if that’s a salable commodity?

In other words: BASED ON THE COMPLAINING IN THIS POST, GUESS WHO NEEDS HER GODDAMNED VACATION ALREADY?!?!

—
* I talked about wanting to be a flight attendant here.

New York. And other random crap.

Travel, , ,

In which I ramble.

Money
Since I’m going to New York, I need money. Which is why I agreed to work on Sunday.

It was quiet. Very quiet. And after the other guy left, it verged on creepy… being all alone in the Drumheller building made me glad I had Bindu with me. I watched two feature-length films and three episodes of Red Dwarf, season one, and took fewer than ten calls all day long. And got paid overtime for it!

All of which is another way of saying that while you may think that today is Tuesday, it’s actually Wednesday for me.

Music
I’m hoarding gig money, too. The band still owes me $200 for gigs paid by check (who DOES that? pays a band with a fucking check?!) and I’ll probably make another bill this Friday (if I’m lucky. We don’t have a guarantee for the Friday gig; if the upcoming Marquee article doesn’t drive traffic to the venue I’ll be walking outta Merchants with maybe fifty bucks).

Reading
I’m reading three books simultaneously. None of them are really doing anything for me.

I discussed this vague dissatisfaction with G’ma and she says that years of reading heavily will make it hard for you to be charmed; you’ve read it all before. The three books that I’m reading are all good, they’re just not giving me that excited rush I have come to miss… maybe this is the period of malaise that will cause me to start actually writing. I’ve noticed myself lately reading about writing, and maybe it’s a sign.

I do happen to have an entire cast of characters in my head… it’s just that the main character, the alien? Would require WAY TOO MUCH RESEARCH to ever write convincingly. And is there any serious science about pheromones in humans? Yeah, my point exactly. Way too much research.

Eh. I’ll find something good to read sooner or later. I hope.

Human Gender
In other news, these are the Wikipedia articles I read today: eunuch, hijra, Brihannala, third sex, GID, proprioception, pomosexuality, and vestibular caloric stimulation.

I looked up eunuch to verify the spelling, then read the article by accident. Which led to reading about Hijiras, and then discovering that Arjuna spent some time as a transgendered male in the Mahabharat, which I totally did not know. I re-read the third sex article ’cause I haven’t done so in awhile, then arced off into the biological-vs-psychological arguments about various gender identifications and ended up at GID and pomo.

VCS was something I just didn’t know about. I mean, who knew that pouring water into the ears was a test for brain stem death? Certainly not I.

I fucking love Wikipedia!
Wikipedia Affiliate Button

Big Apple

Travel,

In which your intrepid narrator will be Out Of The Office.

I’ve been telling everyone I’m going to New York for about four years. This year, I SWORE I’d get there NO MATTER WHAT… but then I changed jobs and thought, well, the job change was all for the good, but I bet I won’t be getting any vacation time this fall, damn it.

But! Since there’s no hurt in asking, I asked the new job if I could take a week off already even though I’m brand new, and they, awesomely, said yes!

out_of_office

I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see Deboka, and Jake, and Derby, and Barbara, and hopefully VUBOQ too, and maybe meet some online friends IRL for the first time! YAY!

Pre-vacation Geekfest

Travel, , ,

In which I’ll be in Vegas in twenty-four hours!

I’m certain I’m over-packing because it’s in the 70’s here. It’ll be in the 90’s in Vegas; of course we’ll probably spend a lot of time indoors and that’ll be air-conditioned, but I brought pants and long-sleeved shirts and in spite of the sun dresses I packed will probably end up buying a tank top somewhere anyway.

All of my shoes suck. I am so serious. I don’t own even a single pair of cute shoes. I might have to fix that in Vegas. Since I don’t really gamble I’ll need to blow my cash somehow. Wouldn’t want to come home with money, now would I?

Facebook fucking rules. Through it, I got Adam and Mona’s numbers – even texted with them both last night! – and Mr. Appel’s as well, and will hopefully be seeing some of the old Fairfield contingent during my stay there.

Monday is my 40th birthday. My life will be roughly half over, but I expect to be having an auspiciously hella good time when that little landmark is passed. (Teh BF says he bought me a present, but won’t tell me what it is and says I can’t have it ’til we get back.) I want to go out for sushi. Yum, sushi!

We’ll be packing my laptop along, so there will be updates on both our sites; hopefully the trip doesn’t finish loosening the panel ribbon from the motherboard and find me hauling around a useless bit of electronics. Even if the worst happens there’s Twitter and Flickr so you’ll know where I am.

I am so excited I could freakin’ pop, I tell you! Whoohoo! Vegas!

Six Blocks from Seattle Center

Spiritual, Travel, , ,

In which I take the longest bus ride EVAR.

Woke up at K’s this morning. He may have tried to let me sleep in, but he tends to look at me while I’m sleeping [the utter weirdo] and the attention wakes me up. (At least he has the grace to make the coffee.) We lounged around, talked, took showers, dressed, got in the car.

I walked into the airport just as they were announcing my flight. We kissed, he left, I went through security. (This time, they did not go through MY ENTIRE SUITCASE: yay.)

Sat at the gate for awhile. Boarded at 10:50, flew to Seattle. Arrived on time, went downstairs, called my devotee roommate Leela (we met on the Travel Exchange, not IRL). I was at baggage claim 16. She was at baggage claim 1 – of course. So I hoofed halfway across the airport to meet her. Thank God for rolley cases!

After several phone calls we finally found one another and met properly. I pulled out the stuff I’d printed off the ‘net and we discovered we were only fifty yards from the Gray Line bus counter. We got in line to buy tickets, but when we got to the desk a big Russian dude came and said, “If you pay cash, I help you. Come. You pay cash.” We followed him. He took our luggage and walked us to the bus. (Turns out the counter dude hadn’t had a break in six hours and really needed to pee.) The Russian bus driver stowed our luggage and escorted us on board.

Forty minutes later, the bus was full and Leela and I had met another Amma devotee who lives in Mother’s ashram and we were all three having a lovely chat.

Not only does the Gray Line stop constantly, but it doesn’t even go to the Travelodge. We had to catch a commuter to go the rest of the way, and much hilarity ensued as the driver stowed a metric ton of luggage in the ass end of that little short bus. (A woman next to me let out an involuntary groan watching the driver stow suitcases. When I raised an eyebrow at her, she shrugged and said, “There’s three bottles of booze in that suitcase at the bottom.” LOL!) The short bus was fun because everyone chatted and laughed, but fast it was not: we didn’t check into our motel until 3:11.

After check-in, we walked over to Whole Paycheck and ate, and I bought some green plasti-shoes. (I *heart* them. They’re very springy!) We walked over to Seattle Center and found the program hall, but no one was setting up yet. We laid in the grass because the weather is drop-dead gorgeous today. Leela gave a beggar some change; I gave him a cigarette.

We idled back to our motel. I got all comfy on the bed with my laptop. Leela went back out. I chatted with K on the phone because we’re über-dorks who can’t go eight hours without speaking to each other.

The program doesn’t start until 10 tomorrow morning, so I’ve got quite a bit of time on my hands. Am wondering if I care enough to find a pub within walking distance… we seem to be in gaytown (everyone, from the motel desk clerk to the Whole Foods checker to the barrista at Starbucks, not to mention half the boys on the street in this neighborhood, is utterly flaming), so it might be worth going out to find a drink.

Stoked to be in Seattle! Super stoked to see Mother tomorrow!

Oh, and the Flickr set is here.

The reason there's no booze left is because we drank it all.

Travel, , ,

In which I finally tell you all about GBM!

I’m somewhat ashamed that I only blogged twice while I was actually traveling to a blogger meet-up, but there were the issues of laptop shortages, busyness, fatigue, and inebriation and I flickred and twittered like a demon so it’s not like there wasn’t some content.

Let me say first that I love all the bloggers I met. Love them. Didn’t meet a single soul I didn’t like, but fell particularly in love with Vuboq (omg, the unrelenting Southern hospitality and the cheese grits), Hypenated Non-Identity, and I Think I Need A New Heart… though I pretty much expected to love those boys. All sweet, wonderful people.

Secondly, all of Vuboq’s friends are, to a one, lovely people. He’s an incredibly fortunate person. The pre-birthday party on Saturday night was populated by nothing but wonderful people, most of whom were excessively pretty gay men with cute jeans and cute hair and cute shoes… Since I’m essentially style-free I knew I’d be utterly outclassed, and I was. (I mean, it’s not like I don’t know I spent fifteen years in freakin’ Iowa and then moved here to hicksville.)

Thirdly, Vuboq drinks like a fish. He tried to blame it all on us, his guests, but who kept ordering pitchers of margaritas? And sangria, huh? I shall tell you: it was VUBOQ.

On Sunday we went out for Mexican food and then went to a gay bar called Cobalt where we drank cheap cocktails and didn’t dance. Ray told an hysterical story about thinking, when he was eight or so, that his mom – an undercover cop – was actually a hooker. Then Canada disappeared with a pocket gay named Billy and barely returned in time to get a ride home with the rest of us, thoroughly freaking Only Me out. When we got home from that, I poured another round and Vuboq and I sat on his bed and had a twitter war and laughed ourselves silly – I had so much fun I can’t even express it, because WHO KNEW Vuboq could, with sufficient booze in him, start doing a strange and wonderful Cartman-meets-lolcats accent?! Certainly not me. He’s just lucky I didn’t wet his damn bed.

On Saint Patrick’s Day, the actual birthday, Hyphenated left at six to make a business meeting in Pittsburgh. Hours later, Only Me made breakfast in bed for the Birthday Princess… and then we just lounged around until past three because we were all hung over. Eventually we left for DC, and we walked the Mall but didn’t go into any of the museums because we were useless and so we opted instead to go get tapas and sangria at Jaleo. (There really aren’t any words for how amazing the food is there, so I won’t bother. Suffice it to say that you should eat there the next time you’re in DC.)

We took the Metro home. Only Me went to pick up the GBM t-shirts he’d ordered, and Vuboq and I stopped at Whole Paycheck to get a few things. Then we went home and I did the dishes and then made an awesome pot of veggie chili. Tomoko and hubby, as well as SCGB, dropped in to eat with us. We killed two bottles of wine.

Today I got up at ten to six, dressed, and then took a bus, two trains, another bus, three planes, and a car. I was home by 6:35. I’ve blogged and uploaded photos and now I’m going to pass the hell out because I have to work tomorrow.

A Totally Shallow Post!

Travel, , , ,

In which I’m ramping up for GBM.

As you know, I’m flying to DC over the weekend of St Pat’s for GBM. I’ve been trying to decide what to wear, which is problematic because all of my clothes are old and worn out and crappy, or they’re hand-me-downs that don’t really fit, or I’m just plain old feeling fat.

Then there’s the seasonal issue. I am always and forever traveling at season change, so I feel like I have to bring clothes for both warm and cold weather and I end up over-packing and still having nothing to wear.

So I’ve decided to give up entirely on the idea of dressing well since it’s so far out of my reach, and have made a hair appointment. Right now I’m growing out the red dye I’d used last year, and have unappealing roots of mousy brown shot with gray (because apparently I’ve become old in the past six months). I’m getting a trim and some foil highlights.

I was thinking about getting a real hair cut – like a new style and everything – but I’ve never been to this particular stylist before and don’t want to end up with something awful 48 hours before leaving for vacation.

I’m gonna be doing laundry and pre-packing this weekend. I’m so excited to be going to DC! It’s almost like having a real life.

In other news, my terrible cold has abated and I feel nearly human again. My room is still a mess and I still have no social life, my dog is still fat, I still have no car, and I’m still in debt up to my eyebrows… but at least I’m not deathly ill. One of these days I might even write an interesting post.

Well, doesn't THIS suck.

Travel, , ,

In which time is not on my side.

When I first decided to go to GBM, I checked kayak.com for flight prices. It was $408 round-trip, including taxes. I didn’t buy because first I had to submit my time off request at work.

At the 6-week pre-travel mark the price for the very same flights went up to $438, and was still there yesterday.

I would have booked my flight yesterday when I got my time-off request approved, but Java had crashed on my machine so I couldn’t navigate the Alaska Airlines site and I was too busy to reboot.

Today I went to book my flight, and in the past 24 hours the very same itinerary has gone up to $602. Crap.

Looks like I’ll be altering my travel dates to March 14-18. Because I ain’t paying no six hundred dollars for airfare.

Organizing Data

Blurbs, , , ,

In which I spend most of the day in front of the computer.

Today I woke up hungry at the ass-crack of dawn, but I stayed in bed until nine or so rockin’ out to tuneage on the beloved iPod. I made eggs and toast and coffee for breakfast when I finally got up. Then I plugged in my external hard drive enclosure, and began the process of putting my iTunes library back together.

I’ve been using SharePod to add content to my iPod since I left Iowa last September, so what’s on my iPod no longer matches the backup I have.

I couldn’t find my old library .xml file, so I had to import all the tracks into iTunes and right now it’s updating album art. When it’s done, I’ll import all the tracks I’ve got on the laptop, then the six gigs of music from Jayrob, and then the video content I have.

Then I’ll spend all evening massaging files, editing tags and shit, and finally I’ll export my playlists off the iPod itself and into iTunes. Once all of THAT is done, I’ll be able to sync my iPod for the first time in over four months… a process that will probably take half the damn night since iTunes will decide the relationship is new and re-write the entire drive.

Long story short? If you’ve got an MP3 library bigger than a few gigs, back it up. Now. Any way you can. Srsly. This is a pain in the arse.

In other news, I’ve decided to attend the first-annual Global Blogger Meetup in DC in March. So far, only three bloggers are actually slated to attend, but that’s all good because it means I get to call dibs on Vuboq’s couch without anyone arguing with me. (I’d prefer the guest room, of course, but Only Me’s already got it, the quasi-Aussie git.)

Vuboq says there will be a chili night on Sunday – I offered to make veggie chili if needed! – and maybe Monday Afternoon Margaritas the next day since I’m dying for the spinach enchiladas and liquid cheese he’s always blogging about. Then on St. Pat’s Day we’ll all go get trashed in honor of Vuboq’s birthday.

Airline tickets are $359 right now, so with vigilant surfing I should be able to find something under $300 and be able to take a reasonable amount of cash along. It’s a lot of damn flying for a 3-day vacation, but what the hell. I do, after all, have both an eBook reader and a kitting bag to stave off boredom, and I’ve already decided 2008 should be a Year Of Travel for me. DC in March, Seattle in June, and NY in September!

Now all I have to do is convince my employer to give me all that time off.