Dangerous

It's no secret to those who know me well. I can be dangerous when I'm bored.

I don't mean "dangerous" in the sense that I'm likely to hurt someone or anything like that. The kind of "danger" that is born of my boredom is more of a fun sort of creature.

I say all this because I love to spend my "down time" surfing the internet. I check my email accounts first (I believe I'm up to five of them now) After that I have a forum or two I visit, followed by a quick look at places like "MySpace" or "Facebook" to see what's going on in the lives of my hundreds of cyber friends.

It isn't unusual for the process to take a couple hours, depending on how sociable I'm feeling at the time.

If I am not feeling particularly sociable, or find myself in a rather blue mood, I'll inevitably end up on some discount travel site searching for the best possible vacation deals on the planet. Seldom am I actually planning to go anywhere, I just like to window shop via the miracle of the world wide web!

This almost always backfires on me.

Let me explain. It seems I am "gifted" at finding good travel deals. Seriously! I can almost always find vacation arrangements that would truly cost my husband and I less than we would spend if we stayed home. For instance, two days ago I came up with a five day cruise for less than $200.00! I don't remember the details, like where it went, what ship it was on, etc. Those are only minor considerations.

What I do remember is that for under 200 bucks apiece, we could have five bliss filled days of lounging on a pool deck overlooking beautiful blue waters a thousand miles (or more) away from telephones, housework, barking dogs and all the other pesky little things involved in NOT being on vacation.

The same couple hundred dollars would also cover nearly a weeks worth of maid service, all the food a person could ever dream of ingesting, waking up in some brand new exotic location every morning (or afternoon, if that's what we'd prefer) .. nightly entertainment, dancing ... I could go on and on.

So, there I'll be with my mouth gaping in amazement at the computer screen wondering how in the world we can afford NOT to take advantage of the fabulous deal displayed before my eyes, when reality rears it's ugly little head.

Ugh!

It takes a lot of work to go on vacation. There's the house to secure, the dog to get to the kennel, the cats to arrange a sitter for ... and the boy, who happens to be enrolled in a public school that frowns on absences due to fun things like cruising to foreign countries.

Oh, and work. I almost forgot about work. *sigh*

If no one works, then there's no money to indulge in even the most inexpensive voyage.

So, for the time being I suppose we'll be staying put.

Don't be surprised though, if at some point in the not too distant future I write to report that I am just back from a wonderful bout of island hopping in the Caribbean where I soaked in the sun and drank sweet little concoctions topped off with tiny umbrellas, to my hearts content!

Indeed! My resolve seems to be melting away even as I type this entry. If I listen closely enough, I can already hear the sound of a steel drum band warming up for the sail away party that's about to begin.

I'll just plain kick myself if I miss out on the fun ... now where did I put my passport????