Why I Should NOT Let Hubby Book Our Vacation

March 25, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 5 Comments

What is worse than having your hubby make arrangements for your vacation? Having his brother help him. Two men do not make a right.

After getting our cabin ocean view re-instated (yes, it cost more money to have a view out the window, instead of an obstruction), I realized my mistake.

I should have worked with my sister-in-law and the travel agent when the arrangements were made. I thought it was a wonderful break to not be the one having to deal with the details. And it was – until, of course, things were wrong.

I am not saying that my hubby and his brother are dolts. They are both extremely intelligent men. That being said, they do not know how to communicate very well. It is a family defect that occurs in every male and when 2 (or more) men in the family make plans, arrangements, whatever, this defect grows exponentially.

The poor travel agent probably asked the right questions, was told by each party their version of what we all wanted to book. Her mistake was to believe them and not cross-verify the bookings and the terms with both. She told me she did this. I didn’t argue the point, but I know my hubby, and he would have never agreed to a cabin with a window you couldn’t see out of.

Now, everything is cool, as far as cabin assignments go. Unfortunately, I’m nervous now. Because what if the window thing is an omen? A foreshadowing of more problems to come? I try not to dwell on the negative, yet a bad omen seems more likely than a good one. From past travel experience, I mean.

When I’m feeling positive, I can almost believe that we got the bad stuff out-of-the-way and the rest of our vacation will be perfect.

If this were your vacation, what would you think – bad omen or good times ahead?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN Obstructed Ocean View?!

March 20, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 5 Comments

Hubby has always wanted to go on an Alaskan inland passage cruise when we retired. His brother & wife also wanted to do this, so this year the guys figured out which cruise line, date of departure, airports, etc. With the help of brother’s travel agent everything got arranged…

Well… you probably already suspect that something is wrong. Because something always goes wrong when hubby and I travel. It’s a curse. Usually the wrongness presents itself during the trip. Not before we even pack for the damned thing!

In my opinion, the first thing wrong was the cruise by-passed Anchorage, it was the major place I wanted to see. I wanted to have lunch with my cousin who lives there. I stopped pouting when hubby promised we would take another trip (someday) to see my cuz.

The itinerary from the travel agent says our cabin is a category ‘OV’ (for ocean view), which we requested, and paid all that extra money for.

So, as soon as our trip was finalized (meaning we paid it off), I get on the cruise ship’s website. I wanted to find out what the ship offered. I found a cool “find your cabin” feature. I type in the cabin number, and up pop’s a deck layout and you get information about your cabin by clicking on it.

Oh. Hell. No. I admit I was shocked, but not that much. This is the kind of crap we deal with when we travel. It’s so annoying that I’m starting to stay home and give up on the whole vacation idea. Anyway, click on the photo below before reading the next paragraph. That way you will know what I was seeing at the time.

Our cabin has a window sure enough, but it is obstructed. Not just a little obstruction, like a pipe or a beam crossing in front of it. No. We are talking about Full Obstruction. The warning is in red text even. The cabin’s category is really ‘OW’. I imagine that “OW” stands for ‘Obscured Window’, but in my mind it means OW, I’ve been screwed!

I don’t know about you, but I tend to think of a fully obstructed window as a no-view situation. Ocean or otherwise. I am not happy about this.

There is no way that I’m telling hubby about this ridiculous glitch. His blood pressure does not need to be higher. That, and I do not want to hear about it.

Is that wrong? I feel I’m doing him a favor by sparing him the anxiety. Since I don’t want to rant about it with him, guess what? I thank you for listening.

I immediately sent an email to the travel agent, asking her to re-book us into a non-obstructed ocean view. You know, she should really check out the cabins before booking them, or at least double-check what the cruise line books. My opinion of her professionalism has dropped a few points. Especially since I have not heard back from her yet.

Thank Goodness I found this little hidden detail, BEFORE we boarded the ship. I shudder when I think about how this surprise would go over during check-in.

If only this stupid error will be our last ‘issue’ during our trip. Who knows – maybe we’ll get lucky and avoid hurricanes this time too.

TTFN 🙂

It’s The Waiting That’s A Virtue

March 9, 2014March 9, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 6 Comments

After moving into our new house in 2012, I can finally unpack the boxes of files, books, documents and office supplies. As you can see, things were getting claustrophobic in my little office.

What the photos do not show is that my computer monitor sits on a piece of plywood, between two filing cabinets, that are not the same height, so there are four blocks of wood under the right side.

BeforeDeskArea

I can’t work in a messy office very well. It’s that way in my kitchen too. I have to clean up and do dishes, before I can start making a brand new mess. After using this desk & office you can imagine how nice it is to ‘go to work’ now 😉

My “new” office has gorgeous oak filing cabinets, bookshelves, and a custom-built desk. I am loving it! I want to get back to work, but I must put things away first. [I could not help myself this afternoon, so I took a break to write this post and let y’all know why I’m not posting so much right now.]

The only issue I foresee is the fact that I’m not even half-way unpacked and running low on filing cabinet space. I suppose that I could put a lot of things into binders and on the book shelves, but I have a ton of reference materials and books to put away.

I am trying NOT to panic. I don’t have a deadline to be moved in. Our two guest rooms are stuffed full of boxes for me to go through and organize one by one. There are no guests scheduled to arrive in the next month, so I do have time.

Who knows? Maybe there are still some files I can toss. Maybe I could let go of old files stuffed with ideas and the beginnings of a few new novels and short stories, but I doubt that will happen. Some of them I’ve had since I was twelve years old. (And that’s a hella long time!)

Hubby has a storage basement under his shop if things get out of hand. Or, I could sneak some things out into our new cabinets in the garage…

Somewhere on this property, my stuff will get put away.

I. Have. Spoken.