Magic Jewball

Hi, readers, I’m home!

After a lovely weekend of stuffing, gorging, praying, and sleeping, I feel refreshed and rejuvenated. Bring on the new year! Actually, there are several other holidays coming up in the next month but there’s time enough for that later. Now I need help planning my vacation.

Originally, I had plans to take a train across the US. This is something I’ve dreamed of for years and years if you’d believe it. The copyright on my “Rail Ventures” guidebook is like 1993. But then other vacations came along. See, I’m sort of a discount vacation to Europe freak. Every time they’d have that British Airways commercial where the guy in the street shouts “where is everybody?!” before playing jazzy music and flashing ridiculously low fares to London, it was like a Pavlovian signal to dig out my passport. And so, I saw London, I saw Cornwall, I saw Wales, I saw Scotland, I saw Ireland, I saw London again. Occasionally, I even saw countries outside the British Isles, like France and Holland and Belgium and Germany. I’d go for the weekend even. It was cheaper to go to London for the weekend then it was to go to Florida. And they don’t have cream teas in Florida, even if I were a “lie on the beach” kind of girl, which I’m not.

So the Amtrak vacation just lay in wait, humbly on the backburner. Then I got a mortgage and stopped traveling anywhere (perhaps you are aware of what real estate in Manhattan costs). Sure I went to Israel for some family occasions and to Tampa for Spring training, but I don’t really consider any of those vacations. It has to be like a week, you have to actually leave your home, and no family occasions can be involved. But I’ve finally begun to rebuild my savings and this was the year for the Empire Builder on Amtrak. First to Chicago, then through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and finally to Portland (you can go to Seattle too but I’ve already been to Seattle). What could be more relaxing then a week on a train watching peaceful scenery go by as you read a book and contemplate life? I’d even have my own sleeper section. Yes, it all seemed lovely and I booked my trip.

But perhaps you have read this post of DuJane’s. DuJane is my good friend, even though we’ve never met. We e-mail four hundred times a day and make each other laugh and tell each other our problems so I don’t have to inflict them on you. Of course, Jane no longer has any problems, but that’s OK, it means she has more time for mine. Jane calls me smoochy baby and always has an experience in her life that corresponds with mine. If you have read the post I linked to above, the idea has already formed itself in your head, I’m sure (my readers are smart, S-M-R-T.) Becca, why not go to Paris with Jane? My God, what an excellent idea. Can Amtrak wait another year? Does JetBlue give refunds? Can the blogosphere deal with an exciting event like “Two Bloggers Do Paris?”

Forget all that, I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t you say that you and Jane have never even met? It’s true, we haven’t. But I can use some of my previously booked Amtrak trip to go to Chi-town and meet her in advance. Either way I’m not really worried about it. You see, I’ve met lots of people from the Internet. Thirty or forty, probably. And each time, the person is even better, more them, than I would have even expected. Certainly someone I know as well as Jane shouldn’t be a problem. As a matter of fact, I expect Jane and I to thoroughly enjoy ourselves in Chicago as we spend our time shopping, eating, and getting drunk. I’m only afraid Paris won’t top that. But you see, Jane is on a mission to find her favorite hot chocolate and what kind of friend would I be if I weren’t there to help her out on her quest? And then we’ll blog about it every day. Everybody wins!

I think my mind is already made up but go ahead and weigh in anyway.

The Go-Go’s – Vacation