But now? Honestly, that's a weekend trip. It's fun and I want to do it as often as possible, but that really doesn't require a lot of planning. Trips like that could be done at the drop of a hat so long as I have the days off, and really I could get most Friday's and Monday's off around my weekend so it's not even that much trouble there. It's just a matter of having a friend that wants to do it and the cash in the account. Dallas is a bit more of a trip as it does require either a plane ride or an extra four days to drive it. But that's visiting friends. I get to hang out with their family, maybe go to a school performance, get kicked in the nuts repeatedly by their dog, BBQ, check out my buddy's new guns... it's hanging out on a slightly bigger scale because we live so far apart. It's not a vacation.
That leaves those big trips. In my new way of thinking, I've taken one real Vacation since I started my nursing career (and really that's just another way of saying 'since I started my new life'). Mexico. Flying down with my good friend to Puerto Vallarta for a week in a resort was epic. It was something that took a lot of planning including getting a passport and syncing up our two schedules for over a week off. I mean hell, it took almost my entire wardrobe of acceptable public view-able clothes! And it was most certainly something that I couldn't just jump up and 'do'.
So by those new standards, this next trip I'm taking is a Vacation even though it's far shorter than Puerto Vallarta. The story of this trip started back in February/March. That's when our Vacation book goes around work. A quick explanation; our union says that twice a year a vacation book goes around and in order of seniority we get to sign up for days off. So long as you have the time available, and someone more senior than you hasn't already asked for that time off it has to be given to you. Now I said above that I can get most Friday's and Monday's off and that's true. But it does have limitations. If someone else has already asked for those days off on my shift, I can't get the day even though I have the most seniority on my shift. It would put us below critical staffing levels and require overtime to fill it, so my boss has no reason to say yes. Yeah, if I begged and pleaded I could probably trade a shift with someone on the morning side, but it would be a royal pain. But the vacation book? That can't be denied. So when this year's book started to make it's rounds I called up my two buddies A and E and suggested we take a trip together.
I really didn't care where the trip was. I just wanted to hang out with my two friends. In my mind, the fun will happen organically. For example, the last time I went to Chicago with E we went to our old neighborhood, we went to a street festival, we went to the Art Institute, and we wandered the streets an night just marveling at the concrete urban canyons. But the two most memorable moments for me were two conversations we had in the hotel room. One was the classic 'catching up' conversation telling each other how our lives have been and the other was the classic 'where is life going to take us' conversation. Those conversations could have happened anywhere. Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Miami. They could have taken place in a hotel lobby, at a museum, a restaurant, or a bar. It could have been in E's living room or my patio. Just getting to hang out with him was the best part of that trip. Don't get me wrong, everything else was a blast too, but I wasn't looking to have a blast AND hang out with my two good friends, I was looking to hang out with my two good friends AND have a blast. It's different.
Anywho, i contacted them and over a week or two we decided on taking a trip to New Orleans. I've been to New Orleans once as a child and once as a Truck Driver... the latter trip was just on a highway through the city. E had a trip there while in photo school. A, to my knowledge, has never been there. In other words, none of us have been there as adults. The closest was E and that was now over 20 years ago. We even settled on a time frame. The third weekend in September. We'd all try to get as much time off as possible around it, but we'd at least commit to Saturday and Sunday September 16th and 17th. On my part, as I was able to get it with the vacation book, I took off from Wednesday September 13th to Wednesday September 20th off.
As we got closer I kept on nudging both A and E about the trip. I didn't want it to fall through because someone forgot about it, and certainly didn't want to book a hotel or plane trip and then be out the cash if they couldn't make it. A's job situation is probably the strictest. Not only is he working for a huge corporation at a fairly low level, he has family obligations. He takes time off for his family, for his kids, for his wife. Taking extra time off for his friends is truly a luxury and he doesn't have a LOT of time for that. He ended up fully committing to Friday through Sunday. E is on the opposite end of that spectrum. He works at a fairly small company at a fairly high end position. He can honestly get all the time off he wants, it's just a matter of making sure the work gets done anyway. He will often be working when we're taking trips together. So he was the last to actually commit to the time.
As I was contemplating how to get down to NOLA, I realized I would first need to know when E was going to be there. I mean, there's no reason to fly down on Wednesday if neither he nor A were going to be there until Friday. So instead of cornering him on the time, I cornered him on the hotel. He knew A wasn't going to be there till Friday and that I was available sooner, so he booked a really sweet hotel/apartment from Thursday to Sunday. I had been tracking plane tickets in that time frame and knew it would cost about $700. And yes, that's first class. I'm not a snob, I'm just a tall wide person. If I'm going to fly and can afford it, I'm going to go first class for that nice big comfy seat. In this case it's a $400 premium that I CAN afford so I'm doing it. Plus flying First Class does get me some extras. I get to scoot around most of the security wait with my ticket. I get to be seated first and disembark the plane first. I get two free checked bags. I get power at my seat and am guaranteed to be sitting either at the window or the aisle. We get a pillow and a blanket and a bottle of water waiting for us at our seats. We get guaranteed carry on storage at our seat. We get a single stewardess for the 20 or so people in First class that will get us free beverages (both non alcoholic and the more fun alcoholic varieties), and a meal even though it's only a 3 hour flight. Yeah... it's worth it to me.
I knew that A would be coming in from Dallas and that his plane trip would be ridiculously cheap. E is coming from San Francisco and is ridiculously expensive. An idea hit me that i thought my be really cool if E could get a few extra days off... ROAD TRIP! Have E fly into Chicago Wednesday morning, I pick him up and we drive down to NOLA together arriving Thursday evening. We get to enjoy each other's company, some road food, my car, and then still have the full NOLA experience. Then instead of flying out of NOLA, we could drive back up and have a day in Memphis or even a day or two in Chicago. It would suck that A couldn't join us for that leg, but it would still be cool.
But after a few days of cajoling and encouraging.... E can't get that much time off. He just took a trip and was already back logged at work. As is, he'd have to sneak out of some work to get the flight straight down to NOLA and then sneak back in on the Monday after. I could still do a solo road trip... but I just drove down to Dallas earlier this year and it's been a while since I've flown. So screw it... I found the earliest flight into NOLA on the 14th and the latest flight out on the 17th. Delta first class gets me in NOLA at 10 AM on Thursday and out at 5 PM on Sunday. I could technically leave a few hours later, it would involve a layover in Atlanta and cost a couple hundred dollars more. A is flying out at 9 PM and I could hang with him... but sadly that value proposition just isn't there. Sorry A, you're going to have 4 hours alone at the airport.
And now that we have a room booked and I have my expensive non refundable plane ticket... I can't stop watching the weather. Yeah... I'm sure you're all watching Irma barrel it's way toward the Gulf of Mexico. Right now the projected path is that it slams into Florida, but there is still the possibilities that it could just graze the southern tip of Florida, head back into the Gulf and head straight for....
Fuck.
I know people in Florida and I certainly don't want harm to come to them. The best option would be for Irma to change it's mind and head back out into the Atlantic but it doesn't look like that's on the menu of options. Even if it does miss NOLA completely, I'm sure the weather will still be affected. I can only hope that it works out, that I get to visit with A and E and that people's lives aren't destroyed.
And the next Vacation? Heh... a trip with my other friend A down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras in February! I'm going to scope out some things while down there next week, but we're taking the train down from Chicago. It's going to be a blast!
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