Oh, the places you'll go!

I'm off to Chicago for the weekend, well actually the day. An old friend, who I had lost touch with for stupid reasons, is getting married. I knew from her ex-boyfriend who is also a good friend of mine, that it was this summer, so thanks to the Internet and The Knot, I found her registry and bought her a wedding gift.

She in turn, googled me and found my blog, left a comment. I at first at no idea who MF was. Eventually, after like 20 minutes, I figured it out, and emailed her at her job. Upshot, I'm flying tomorrow to Chi-town for her wedding.

I just counted, and I've been to ten American cities. That's more than my mother ever went to. I've also been to 5 European cities and one Canadian (Montreal). And I still don't feel as if I've traveled enough. One of the things that I liked about temping was the freedom to take off for a summer to London or Paris. Now that I have a permanent job and only 2 weeks of vacation, it becomes harder. Particularly as I pursue this profession of writing.

It's always a toss-up of whether or not to use my vacation days to travel or to go to a conference. And this when I'm unpublished. When (I said when not if. I'm nothing if not optimistic), it becomes a matter of going to RT and RWA. I totally believe that going to regional conferences as well (particularly if you can come up with a workshop) is a good way to promote your writing, but it has to be balanced out with fun vacations.

Which means taking time off without getting paid for it, since I won't get 3 weeks until I've been in this job for 5 years. Hence why I often think of switching to teaching or working for a non-profit.

The list of places I still want to go seems endless, San Francisco, Newport, Florence, India, Rome, Prague, Tuscany, Monaco, Vancouver, and Toronto. Not to mention the Stratford Festival in Canada. Or the places that I've already been that I want to go back to.

My trip to Prague got cancelled, so it's now a choice of doing the familiar (London where I have friends and can relax and do whatever) or a structured tour of someplace like Florence or Savannah.

Sigh! Tough choices huh?

Thanks for reading,
EKM