Holiday suckage
Dec. 22nd, 2004 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quarrelShort version: I'm not going home for Christmas this year.
Long version:
My family and I have an arrangement. We live on opposite coasts, so Christmastime visits are difficult. We've resolved to alternate who flies to visit whom each year. This year was supposed to be my turn to fly. They even footed the bill and paid for the ticket, as I'm strapped right now. It was going to be an unprecedented 10-day stay. Past years have been 5 or 6.
I live with one cat and zero humans. That means any trip longer than 2-3 days requires an extra step. In the past it's meant boarding, though now that their prices are closer to $13 a day from the $8 they used to be, that's my last refuge these days. I had made plans instead with a co-worker to stop in every day or two while I was away. I was supposed to meet with her last weekend to turn over the key and directions, but I never reached her on her cell phone Saturday, or Sunday.
On Monday I began calling everyone else I knew at work, plus one fellow who had done this for me in the past but has a new job elsewhere. My flight took off that night. No luck; everyone was either busy or didn't answer.
I looked into other alternatives. I couldn't ask the neighbors. I don't know any of them. (I don't really have time to get to know them either. It's an apartment, and there's a high turnover rate. Few tenants stay longer than a year.) I couldn't ask the management. They don't take that kind of responsibility. The boarders were booked solid, and had been for over a month, just like they are every Christmas. Bringing my cat with me on the plane would require a soft-shell pet carryon (which I could get), a checkup within the past 30 days (which I probably couldn't), an $80 surcharge each way (which my parents would pay), and prior notification with the airline because they don't allow more than three pets per aircraft and they don't take them at all in the luggage bay because there's no heat or air conditioning.
I got my co-worker's home number from another and called. All I got was her housemate, who knew nothing except that she was out somewhere (with unmistakable overtones of "And-that's-all-I-know-and-this-isn't-my-problem-so-goodbye"). I called my parents with things down to the wire and let them know what was going on. They suggested trying to get a professional pet-sitting service. It came to them instantly, since my sister has done that. I hadn't thought of it. Problem was, it was now after 5:00. The phone book and WWW listed several, but none answered, save one that listed a mobile number as well. He was willing to take the task, but by the time he returned home from where he was to fetch the necessary paperwork, locate a partner, drive to my place, and hold their required interview, I would be getting to the airport about 30 minutes before my flight left.
I called the air line to see what kind of delays were possible. They could have put me on a later outbound flight with no fee, if there was such a flight. But there wasn't. Leaving on a later day would require re-ticketing, which is essentially buying a brand a new ticket right there, minus the cost of the one already bought, plus a hundred dollar service charge. A brand new ticket one week before Christmas with one day advance notice. Yeah. Right.
In the end, I had to cancel the flight. Hopefully I will be able to take 2-3 days off around a weekend by mid-February and put the credit amount towards tickets home then, and if it's soon enough, my parents say they'll keep the decorations up until I get home, which is quite cool. All my relatives are local to there, so I won't miss anyone then that I could see this week. (If only the same could be said of my sweetheart. That's the part that really hurts.)
So. Now I have ten days of...well, pretty much nothing. Nothing's decorated, nothing's planned, everything out there is going to be either closed or super-croweded and super-expensive. I have a feeling I'm not going to realize just how much that sucks until more days come and go.
What frustrates me most is that none of this would have happened if I had bailed on my original plan earlier. But the person I'd made arrangements with is reliable at work. She doesn't put things off, she doesn't forget things, she doesn't ignore phone calls. I don't know what the deal is. It's just....uuugh. I did so much, but none of it worked right. If I'd changed gears sooner, if I'd made different arrangements in the first place, if I'd called for help as soon as possible instead of when I had run out of my own ideas... So many ways this could have gone as planned, all pointing to me simply not doing things right the first time. It's like I may as well not have bothered. The result is the same, only it took much more work and stress to get there.
Long version:
My family and I have an arrangement. We live on opposite coasts, so Christmastime visits are difficult. We've resolved to alternate who flies to visit whom each year. This year was supposed to be my turn to fly. They even footed the bill and paid for the ticket, as I'm strapped right now. It was going to be an unprecedented 10-day stay. Past years have been 5 or 6.
I live with one cat and zero humans. That means any trip longer than 2-3 days requires an extra step. In the past it's meant boarding, though now that their prices are closer to $13 a day from the $8 they used to be, that's my last refuge these days. I had made plans instead with a co-worker to stop in every day or two while I was away. I was supposed to meet with her last weekend to turn over the key and directions, but I never reached her on her cell phone Saturday, or Sunday.
On Monday I began calling everyone else I knew at work, plus one fellow who had done this for me in the past but has a new job elsewhere. My flight took off that night. No luck; everyone was either busy or didn't answer.
I looked into other alternatives. I couldn't ask the neighbors. I don't know any of them. (I don't really have time to get to know them either. It's an apartment, and there's a high turnover rate. Few tenants stay longer than a year.) I couldn't ask the management. They don't take that kind of responsibility. The boarders were booked solid, and had been for over a month, just like they are every Christmas. Bringing my cat with me on the plane would require a soft-shell pet carryon (which I could get), a checkup within the past 30 days (which I probably couldn't), an $80 surcharge each way (which my parents would pay), and prior notification with the airline because they don't allow more than three pets per aircraft and they don't take them at all in the luggage bay because there's no heat or air conditioning.
I got my co-worker's home number from another and called. All I got was her housemate, who knew nothing except that she was out somewhere (with unmistakable overtones of "And-that's-all-I-know-and-this-isn't-my-problem-so-goodbye"). I called my parents with things down to the wire and let them know what was going on. They suggested trying to get a professional pet-sitting service. It came to them instantly, since my sister has done that. I hadn't thought of it. Problem was, it was now after 5:00. The phone book and WWW listed several, but none answered, save one that listed a mobile number as well. He was willing to take the task, but by the time he returned home from where he was to fetch the necessary paperwork, locate a partner, drive to my place, and hold their required interview, I would be getting to the airport about 30 minutes before my flight left.
I called the air line to see what kind of delays were possible. They could have put me on a later outbound flight with no fee, if there was such a flight. But there wasn't. Leaving on a later day would require re-ticketing, which is essentially buying a brand a new ticket right there, minus the cost of the one already bought, plus a hundred dollar service charge. A brand new ticket one week before Christmas with one day advance notice. Yeah. Right.
In the end, I had to cancel the flight. Hopefully I will be able to take 2-3 days off around a weekend by mid-February and put the credit amount towards tickets home then, and if it's soon enough, my parents say they'll keep the decorations up until I get home, which is quite cool. All my relatives are local to there, so I won't miss anyone then that I could see this week. (If only the same could be said of my sweetheart. That's the part that really hurts.)
So. Now I have ten days of...well, pretty much nothing. Nothing's decorated, nothing's planned, everything out there is going to be either closed or super-croweded and super-expensive. I have a feeling I'm not going to realize just how much that sucks until more days come and go.
What frustrates me most is that none of this would have happened if I had bailed on my original plan earlier. But the person I'd made arrangements with is reliable at work. She doesn't put things off, she doesn't forget things, she doesn't ignore phone calls. I don't know what the deal is. It's just....uuugh. I did so much, but none of it worked right. If I'd changed gears sooner, if I'd made different arrangements in the first place, if I'd called for help as soon as possible instead of when I had run out of my own ideas... So many ways this could have gone as planned, all pointing to me simply not doing things right the first time. It's like I may as well not have bothered. The result is the same, only it took much more work and stress to get there.
