Yesterday I wrote a to-do list on a pad of paper with my realtor’s grinning face on it. I labeled it “Sunday,” underlined. Today I got back from morning practice, and after seeing that it was 80 degrees out and my right shoulder was still jacked from the game the night before, I threw my list on top of the pile of other paper on my desk and went outside to lay by the pool. My thought was to obtain a mild bikini tan before my “East Coast Adventure,” which is what I quickly named my itinerary at Orbitz before I realized there was no way to edit the trip later. All the witty trip names I could have come up with are now moot, due to crappy interaction design. So again we see here another fine example of how HCI affects our personal lives. Of course, maybe this trip will prove to be more aptly named than planned (or rather, unplanned).
I sat out on the pool deck for a bit, while family after family of screaming children came and went. A friend and photographer loaned me one of Palahniuk’s books, Invisible Monsters, which is about a model who becomes horribly disfigured in an “accident,” and the subsequent reinvention of her bizarre life. Thanks dmk26, I know I can always count on you for uplifting reading material. I’m only on page 92, but I thought I’d share this line with you:
“Another thing is no matter how much you think you love somebody, you’ll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close.” Page 15.
The novel is full of alternate reflections on life like this. Which reminded me, I had been burning up in the sun for at least two hours. I checked my bikini tan by lifting the edge of my top. Ay carumba. I was cooked. I jumped in the pool and sidestroked it a few laps (it’s the only stroke I can do reliably without sinking), then went back into my house. My tan, or burn, rather, is uneven where I had been holding my book across my waist to read. Weren’t we just talking about horrible disfigurement? Maybe it won’t be so obvious by the time I hit the east coast in two weeks.
I haven’t taken a vacation in years, unless you count my cross-country drive to Pennsylvania for grad school, the time I spent unemployed after graduation, or my jaunt to Pittsburgh over New Year’s to go to Home Depot and pick out paint for Superstar’s living room. Bentley’s mom and I have been trying to coordinate another horseback riding vacation this year for quite some time, but we keep missing each other at the barn. B has been desperately inviting me to Japan, where she is stationed for six weeks to watch satellites and eat fish and rice for breakfast, and the Midwest Princess has invited me to Indy for her wedding, but everything is being thwarted due to work, or maybe due to work’s inability to deal with a lead time shorter than two months. I’m going on vacation now to spite work, and I’d love to say I’m picking destinations almost at random, although the truth is I’m picking destinations where my friends happen to live. But knowing I could have fun with most of these people at the edge of the Arctic Circle, the people at point B are a fine enough reason for a trip.
“Give me some airport codes,” I said to Sampleminded over IM, “and I’ll put them into Orbitz.” “I hate shopping for plane tickets,” A said. “There’s no logic to the changing fares.” “That’s why it’s so great,” I said, “it’s like Vegas.” Where I’m going on vacation in the next few weeks has been more unpredictable than what’s under the Surprise card on Wheel of Fortune. It’s always helpful to have some cooperative and semi-spontaneous people on the other end to make a trip like this work, and luckily I found seven such people in one of the bigger jackpots this year.
With less than two weeks until I leave, there are still hazy parts of my trip here and there that I haven’t figured out. Like, what will I be doing between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on July 2? I haven’t thought that far ahead. I have, however, obtained an airplane adapter for my laptop and a data cable for my mobile phone, so you vicarious living folks will be happy to know that I’m going to try to document this trip as I go. I’m sure all my generous hosts will be thrilled to have their lives exposed on the internet. Stay tuned.
