The first 15 pics of my trip are up in the new album on the left: NYC 2005.

As I said to Dave, I took lots of pictures of tiny pieces of landmarks, as usual.  Anyhoo.  I didn’t get any pictures WITH anyone, except the babies O & V, which sort of speaks to the whole non-internetness of the trip, I think.  It’s not even about Digs really, as much as it is that these are all people who read here, who know all of my secrets, who know more about my life than even my sister does, you know?  I use Digs as a catchall to describe how I know these people, because my family doesn’t know about my journal, and I like it like that.  And they are familiar enough with my geekiness that it seems totally okay to have someone leave a key for me to access their apartment before they get home, or to stay with someone they’ve never met who has a new infant…. but for internet fear-mongers, it sounds totally weird, right?  But it was so natural to just walk in and start talking, that it honestly didn’t occur to me to take pictures for proof, or posterity.

When Jeanne saw the pic of O and me, she IMed a "OH WEIRD! That’s YOU! In KB’s house! Holding OLIVIA!"  That weird intersection of internet and real life is a little surreal, at times, but truly, I certainly didn’t FEEL like I was meeting KB for the first time.  It was just, "Oh, hey! How are you!" and just started talking and talking and laughing and all of that. 

Anyway, Jeanne also thinks I get the award for most Digsters met, which I think is around 15, and that doesn’t include emmalola on Sunday or Jezabel in two weeks. 

Also, more pictures will be added, once I get them all downloaded from the camera, whose batteries are dead because I couldn’t use my card reader (think I need a new one) and I can’t recharge them because Dave lent my charger to his coworker…. ANYWAY. More pics soon.

On the first takeoff out of LaGuardia, last night, I was thinking "How appropriate, really… I started this weekend with my 20-something single friends in Manhattan, then transitioned to the new 30-ish parents of Brooklyn, and ended up with the toddler mama on Long Island… I’ve crossed over to 30."

Then I looked at the skyline falling away from me and wondered when I’d see it again.  About an hour later, as it turned out, because when we got to Portland (after a 2.5 hour delay leaving LGA) we were refused landing due to fog (which, by the way, no one on the ground in Portland could see, at least beyond the other commercial flights that were landing all evening.)  So, I spent the night in the deserted USAir ticketing area of LGA, flew to Philadelphia at 6:30 am, and finally arrived on the curb at Portland at around 10:30 am. 

My trip was fabulous, but I’m exhausted, so this is the highlights, and pictures will follow:

*Lovely dinner with Kate and Brooke on thursday night
*Friday was spent tromping around the UES and going to museums, with a brief dehydration-induced illness and nap in the afternoon (MUST! STAY! HYDRATED!) before heading to midtown and meeting Brooke at Rockefeller Center and getting dinner
*Saturday, I journeyed off to Brooklyn, where my only first in-person meeting was, which was to meet KB and her family, J and the amazing O.  Muse couldn’t meet up due to a death in the family, so J took the second ticket and we went to see Avenue Q which was SO. WORTH. THE. SPLURGE. Seriously. Looovveed it.  When we got back to Brooklyn, KB and O had made me birthday cupcakes and I had a present! (A new iBook case, which fits PERFECTLY and is totally cool.)  Indian food, Italian Ices, and watching a movie while telling stories of people falling down made for a great evening. 
*Sunday, the KB family walked me to the LIRR station, and I headed to Long Island to see AnneMarie and her family.  Annemarie met me at the station, and I got to meet the charming Violet, and spend time on the beach, but most of all just catch up in person after 2 long years of not seeing each other.
*Monday: IKEA.  Need I say more? It was my first time ever. Sigh.
*Tuesday: More time with AnneMarie and Violet, a trip on the Van Wyck and some quality time sharing a bench with a Turkish girl in LGA.

It was so great.  I’m home, just took a shower, will do laundry tomorrow, and feel more ready for 30 than ever.  KB kept reminding me, "30 is your year!" and I’m going to believe her.

Pictures tomorrow, I hope. 

I go to NYC in four days! Holy cow!

The last week of school was one of the busiest — I was at school til 8 or 9 a few nights, plus wrapping up grades and doing report cards and writing the letters to the 8th graders and cleaning my room and and and now that it’s DONE, I’m totally surprised that my flight is on THURSDAY. Holy cow.

This year, and especially this spring, has been hard.  It’s been hard trying to teach knowing that my program is on the line.  It’s been hard TTCing and having no success, then some success, and then a total failure.  It’s been hard trying to know what I should do next, what I should do in regards to TTC, hell, even what to do about the color of my bedroom.  And to be broaching 30, to boot, well, I told KB that this trip is like my little reward for surviving it all.

It’s weird, though, how the miscarriage still bugs me.  Today it did, father’s day, because I’m once again feeling like I let Dave down (and he insists that that is NOT the case, it’s totally my own feelings) because this would have been the first father’s day that he was ever a part of, in any way.  When I think about NYC, my original plans had me thinking I would keep my eye out for maybe a neat bag that could be used as a diaper bag (like the dragonfly messenger bags at Pearl River or something) and how I would compare notes with KB and AnneMarie and hear all about Brooke’s nephew.  And "babies bring babies."  I cannot wait to meet Olivia and Violet and be reminded of just what it is I’m working towards.  I’m excited to see Avenue Q with Muse, too, to do some grown up things, to get that jolt of energy a true city gives me.

So, if you see me with my lime-green bag and orange backpack this weekend, know that I’m really excited for the future, and wiser from the past, and still, very much, twenty-nine.

ABout 2 seconds after I tried (again) to book our car and room this morning, the phone rang. Sho ’nuff, it was the credit card company just calling to verify that we were using the card since it hadn’t been used in over 6 months. After I told him, yes, we are trying to use our card, he said “Go ahead, I just opened it back up.” So, yay for personal calls from the credit card company. That’s one thing they do right, I guess.

Soooooo…. we have a room! And a car! A sweet, pimped out, 2-door Geo Metro! (heh.) And, our room is on the beach, by some miracle. Hoping to be pregnant at the time, I had a few things I wanted in a room. Being on the beach is one. Sure, we could stay by the airport, but having to drive back and forth to the beach every time I wanted to take a nap or eat something or pee or whatever would be a pain. Being able to just walk back inside and have access to everything I need or want, that’s a plus. Having a king sized bed will be much preferable to a double (lots of places were less expensive with a double bed, but since I may be more expansive, and we already are used to a queen, I wanted ROOM. And while it isn’t QUITE what we first imagined: cottage on a beach on Sanibel Island or the like, it’s damn close. Hotel on the quiet end of Ft Myers Beach, and Sanibel, Captiva, etc, are all just a short drive away. Some things I read said that FMB was better, anyway, because it had less shells and softer sand than Sanibel. Silver lining! There’s also a kitchenette, which is always good, even if you eat out every day. Being able to have a store of breakfast and lunch foods, and snacks and cold drinks, is always great.

Our hotel is the Casa Playa Resort, and for that hotel and a car for 6 nights, it was 140/night. The printed rates for that time of year for the hotel are 180/night, so I think we did well. Go, Orbitz.

Yay! Our vacation is booked, paid for (on a 0-balance, 0% CC, so it will be PAID FOR by January) and all we have to do is dream of beaches and babies. WHeeeee!!!

Yay!

The lack o’ fetus this month means that we were able to start planning our vacation. Poor Dave.

We bought plane tickets this morning, and I’m trying to book car & hotel, but Orbitz won’t let me. I’m guessing it has something to do with using the credit card for the first time in almost a year to do it. I’ll have to try tomorrow.

But, anyway, we will be going to Ft. Myers, Florida during my April vacation. It seemed like the best combination of what we wanted and didn’t want in a vacation: sun, sand, sea and quiet, but light on the Spring Break atmosphere. Yay!

After buying tickets (we have TICKETS, people!) I met Amy in Augusta for mexican food. (Because nothing says Mexican like Central Maine. . . .) It was great, we waited forEVER for our food, but since the whole point of meeting up for dinner was to talk, it was great to not have to rush through dinner to make room for someone else. We’re trying to make it a priority that we see each other in some fashion once a month, and it’s SO GOOD to have an hour or two of unfettered talking in person. No kid distractions, no “I have a beep” or “My husband’s home, so now I have to talk in code about stupid conception stuff because it’s a girl thing” just “Oh my god, this sour cream tastes like band-aids!!!!”

After she headed home, I went to B&N and picked up a travel guide for our trip, and a book called Weird U.S., which is AMAZING. I knew Dave would love it, and I loved it, so I totally felt that it was a justifiable purchase. It’s a great combo of haunted places, abandoned places, roadside attractions, and other general weird stuff.

In looking at place and trying to book our rooms, Dave is sort of freaking out about the cost. Having never really traveled, he has no real firm idea of what it costs. And, that we could get tickets from BGR to RSW, with only one connection (CVG, because BOS is NEVER a good idea as a connecting city), a rental car, and a beachfront room with a mini-kitchen (to save money by eating in for breakfast and lunch), for SIX NIGHTS, during April vacation, for about $1500 total, is a STEAL. He has a bit of a skewed perspective, as our wedding cost only slightly more than that, and we flew to AUS in July from MHT for 175 (thanks to a travel voucher my folks had, it being JULY, and leaving from an airport 4 hours away) and then stayed with family and were chauffered by my parents (and me, when my Dad finally accepted that living in PHOENIX for a year gave me the ability to city-drive) everywhere. That was cheap. The more romantic couple-only beachy vacation is going to be alittle more, but still. For two people, that’s fan-freakin’-tastic. Hell, I spent $1200 to get myself ONLY to MEL from BGR; thank god I didn’t suggest an international destination, as he would probably totally lose his mind.

And, since the credit card gave us a 0% rate, we can pay it off by christmas, interest free, instead of decimating our savings.

So, Ft Myers Beach & a rental car to see surrounding sights. YAAAAAAAYYY!!

When I got back from Australia, in ’99, I had a goal. I wanted to visit every continent by 30. Now, I’ve only been to 2 (North America and Australia) and I’m PRETTY sure I won’t make that goal, which is something I’ve had to put off as I went to school, etc. I may not make 30, but it’s a good life goal, still.

In going to school, I had to be poor. Real poor. As in, I made less than 10k in the last three years COMBINED poor. Dave isn’t wealthy, but he and financial aid supported me. We lived close to the bone, and when I did start working, we got married and continued to live close to the bone as we saved every red cent for buying a house. And it worked.

So, here we are, almost a year married, and now we’re homeowners who want a baby. (Of course, Dave is working the MDA telethon tomorrow, so he will have one of his bi-annual “We can never have kids because they will end up terminally ill” freakouts; thankfully, this is the last one for this year — CMN was in the spring — so it should wear off quickly.) And we want to take a trip.

When I went to Australia, it was on my own. I charged my plane ticket, and saved and paid cash for the rest. It took me YEARS to pay off that $1200 plane fare, but it was okay. When I charged the ticket, I thought long and hard — was it worth it? And I decided it was, and that I would never, ever regret that charge, no matter how long it took to get paid off. I haven’t regretted it, and it DID take me forever to pay off, and while it was a small part of my credit-card debt, that debt was a bitch to overcome. I regretted the H.O.R.D.E. tickets (kind of, it was a great time with friends who are now dead) and definitely the food charges (I paid HUNDREDS of dollars for mediocre HoJo’s fare, I’m SURE) but never the plane ticket. Never.

However, it made me credit-shy. We don’t have credit card debt. That’s a good thing. But now, I look at my savings account, I look at our combined incomes, and it’s hard to say “It’s okay to travel.” I can’t used credit cards. Using savings means that, well, what if? What if the fridge dies? What if we have a serious home repair? What if we need new windows?

And then the baby thing: Babies eat money, don’t they? So, shouldn’t we be saving money for The Baby (that does not even EXIST yet, even in it’s simplest form)?

When persephone posted about “Bermuda sounds better than Savannah,” she was right. It DOES sound better. I would LOVE to go somewhere moderately tropical; and Bermuda seems like a good off-season solution. (See!? I can’t even allow myself to think about going to someplace high-season, as February vacation airfares will already BE high season, to leave Maine.)

I need some frivolous spending money. I need to feel like I can look at Bermuda and have it not be a pipe dream. I need to have a secondary income.

As such, I’m working on the photography as spending money idea. I am testing out shutterfly’s printing services, and I’ve found a place that sells card frames, mats, and such. This will be my project: to make money doing something creative. I also want to do some more writing/submitting, but for now, I’ll start with the photography.

Even if I made fifty bucks, that’s fifty bucks, you know? And that would be cool.

I have to find my way to the middle of debt-saddled & fancy free, and tight-fisted and tense. Maybe creativity will help.

Savannah. maybe? Breana, any ideas?

Gah! I have not thought about travel for so long, all day has been spent fantasizing about the possibility. What sucks is that it has to be during a school vacation…. reason number 247 that I need to rethink this whole teaching thing.

Bermuda seems like a reasonable choice. Off season, so “affordable” (read: cheap), and still warmer than here in February. (But that’s not hard to achieve.) And, it’s not so far away, 2 hours, I think, from Boston.

Anyone been? Any recommendations?

So, on the travel thing:

The best time for us to go would be February vacation. Where would you go? Any tips, recommendations, or ideas?

Affordable Caribbean (NOT a cruise)? Mexico? Western Europe? (Fares from Boston are cheap in Feb, but, it’s February.)