Trust everybody, but cut the cards

I love to travel. My motto is “If I haven’t been there, I want to go.” (If you have a catchier one, please share it with me.) This is why I work two jobs: one for career advancement, and one to keep me in the lifestyle to which I’ve become accustomed. Hey, no one else is doing it! The Ex was my first consistent travel buddy. I went on his first flight with him, an overnighter to Oklahoma for no good reason. I like to think I turned him on to the concept of travel for the sake of travel. (That’s one thing I don’t understand about a lot of people – they have to have a reason to go somewhere. I like to choose a place to go, then find an event to attend or something to do.) He liked to go out of town, but not as much as me. I was always trying to convince him to go somewhere. We eventually took a cruise together, and that did it – we went a lot more places after that. I was the organizer, finding hotel options and game tickets and show venues, and he would give the final OK. But I always had a sneaking suspicion he agreed more for bragging rights than a desire to see or experience anything new. To him, “jet setting” was part of the lifestyle he wished others to believe he could afford. That he COULD afford it is a moot point.

My main challenge now when planning trips is companionship. I enjoy traveling alone, but I enjoy more being able to be alone when traveling with someone else. I like to have options. The trip to Lake Tahoe was perhaps the most perfect case study for this type of thing. Three friends, traveling together, who spent the majority of time away from one another. And still came home with raucous, unbelievable stories and the “what happens in Tahoe stays in Tahoe” mentality.

My friends, as previously mentioned, are mostly attached, with husbands and children (small children at that). They cannot break away as easily as I. So when they plan a trip to Sin City sans children, I am desperate to go. It’s not the best idea for me financially right now, in fact probably a bad idea altogether, but if I don’t tag along, it will be another year before we can all do something like this again. And I do love me some Sin City.