Man, I dunno if I can handle travelling much more. And I have a lot more of it in the next six months – three major trips planned, and two minor ones.
I just got back from Seattle after attending the CoffeeFest there. I was impressed with parts of it, less so with others. There weren’t enough seminars for one thing. I wasn’t very impressed with the latte art competition either – the first place was definitely deserving, but the second place and especially third place didn’t really stand out for me as quality latte art. I could do better than the third place contestant in my sleep.
I really like Seattle, and one scary thing – I have more friends in that city than I do in Vancouver… how weird is that. Maybe it’s a sign that I should finally do something I’ve been thinking about for ages: move to the US and Seattle (or Portland).
That was a minor trip, though the tally for me was roughly $450 spent on hotel, food, gas, etc.
Major trips are coming up next. I’m headed to Ottawa for Christmas and New Years, to spend time with my Mom and family. On that front, my Mom had a major setback today: she was told her cancer is terminal, and the doctor cut off any further chemo treatments. It’s a shock, but I’m not giving up hope yet, and I hope my Mom isn’t either. But it’s not something I want to write about right now.
That trip is going to be tough on me in several ways. First, I hate flying Air Canada. They suck. Really. Plus it’s the Christmas season, which is insane. Our tix were about 40% more than other times of the year, and since they are the only carrier in Canada, they get away with crap like this.
Plus I’m not crazy about our seat booking. Mind you, you can prebook seats all you want, you NEVER end up getting them with Air Canada – it’s like they take your pre booking seat assignment, then snicker as they ignore it and put you in last row seating (that happened to me). And what are you gonna do, book with their competitor? There isn’t any!
My next trip is tentatively Chicago in January, only a few weeks after I get back. I even had someone volunteer to pay my plane fare, which is simply awesome.
After that, I have Boston and the SCAA conference in April to consider. I want that to be a 9 day trip, so Jeanette and I can have a vacation first in New England, then I do the show and fly home (I’m giving one seminar, moderating a panel, and possibly judging in the barista contest, and maybe Emcee’ing an evening’s event, so I have to go). Jim, my buddy from 1st Line has graciously ponied up some of his travel miles to book us a hotel for some of our stay in Boston, which was damned nice of him. It really helps out, especially since almost all this travel I have to pay for myself; no company is covering most of this stuff for me.
Then in May, I may be heading to San Fran on a futuristic project, but that’s very iffy at best.
Sigh… travel. I loved it when I was 20, and only had a backpack. Today, I have responsibilities, and it wears you down.
