So last weekend was my first of four weekends of travel and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We did a lot of circling of the Atlanta airport before finally landing, and while people around me were getting a little worked up about the delay, I found myself enjoying the ride and the experience. I’m odd like that. A passenger in the row behind me was particularly chatty and we discussed the best ways to maximize accumulated miles. It was convenient that I was in an exit row and he was able to talk around the seat without having to shout. Shouting on an airplane is so rude.
Earl came home last night and was posed with a question, “Would you mind if I went to Dublin for the weekend?”. Now, I wasn’t talking about this weekend, because that would just be silly, after all, we’re headed to Chicago to visit Jamie and celebrate our wedding anniversary and why would I want to go to Dublin when we already have plans in place?
Before me sat my MacBook Pro and a pile of airline loyalty cards. I had spent some time checking and cross-checking accumulated miles. I was surprised to learn that Earl and I have a whole slew of available miles on United. This is awesome, hence the question about Dublin. Naturally I would want to take Earl along as well, unless it was one of those weekends when he was already out of town for work or whatever. But I don’t know that I could go to Dublin without him. I wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much, what with him being the love of my life and all.
So the question about Dublin and the realization that we have United miles and then the further realization that I am really close to my first medallion level opportunity on Delta made me realize that I must fly. More. Must fly more. While we enjoyed our Jeep tour back in August, we are starting to get to the point where we want to fly somewhere, rent a nifty vehicle and then explore from that point, rather than driving all the way across the Empire State, through a bit of Pennsylvania and then across Ohio before we can start exploring.
Oh my god we have such first world problems.
I told Earl that I am unconventional. He wasn’t surprised by this at all. The fact of the matter is, at age 45 some men have some sort of midlife crisis and start doing whacky things: they dye their hair or beard an uncomfortable color, they buy a convertible and whiz around trying to be young or they have an affair and then things get really messy. Well, I have nothing to dye, a convertible in Upstate New York isn’t worth the car payment, I’m not really young and honestly I am quite comfortable with my age and quite frankly, I am well beyond the contentment threshold (I am blissfully happy!) to be considering an affair. In lieu of some midlife crisis I am actively enjoying a midlife experience: loving my age, coming out of my shell and not being too shy to go out and experience life. And I want to travel. A lot.
Like fellow blogger Dave at Blogography, my focus is now to get airline miles in any way possible. Buying an iced tea at Dunkin’ Donuts? Use the card that gets points. Buying groceries? Use the card that gets points. Flying for work? Make sure they know your number. Don’t know what to buy me for a holiday or birthday gift? Buy me airline miles.
Life is too short to sit home and watch television shows about what’s going on in the world. I need to get out and experience it.
Chicago and Tampa (for family) and San Diego (for work) are currently on the agenda. Who knows where to next!
