As I sit here on Thanksgiving weekend awaiting a pre-December snowstorm (or maybe just some snow. Who trusts the weather forecast?), I am wracking my brain trying to figure out how to get out of here, where to go, and who will watch my beautiful dog. Steven gets annoyed (not at me, just at the situation) that I have to travel on a school schedule and I don’t blame him–it’s always peak time and I don’t have any wiggle room. The school calendar is what it is.

We could spend days in Florida with my lovely new mother-in-law. I suspect I will get one easy vote for this choice. Flights will probably cost around $400-500 and other costs are minimal. Key West sounds great, but is crazy expensive. Once I get to the  $1,000 mark, I always think, “I could go to Paris for that!” But really, I can’t because everyone wants to travel the last week of December and/or the first week of January.

I don’t have any interest in going somewhere cold. Skiing is OK, but I can live without it. I am queasy on the idea of all-inclusive places because I feel like you’re in a cage masquerading as an indulgent, fakey-fakey paradise while the people outside the cage are living in poverty. Steven argues with me that these places pump money into the local economy, and he may be right, but I still feel uncomfortable with it. I’d rather go somewhere real.

We tossed around the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Amsterdam, and Barcelona but … Have you ever felt like you were trying to force it? That’s how I feel now. When you know it, you know it. I just don’t.

Eureka! … How about Athens? Hmmm, want to watch the dog?