And you call this vacation?

I suffer from a disease that is best named the Ignore It and Maybe It Will Go Away Syndrome. This syndrome does not require a lot of additional clarification. I like to avoid even being exposed to things that I don’t like, or avoid taking care of things that are just a quintessential pain in the ass. It is similar to denial, but in denial, you have to at least make yourself aware of the issue in order to appropriately deny it, correct? I much prefer my approach, which sometimes means I don’t have to think about it from the start. There is some psychologist reading this blog who is pinning me as the next poster child for some trendy new diagnosis, I can feel it now.

For example, let’s take winter weather. I hate snow. I hate the arctic cold. I hate driving on bad roads. Instead of constantly obsessing over it and inflicting more emotional distress than necessary, I abstain from even listening to the weather. So, when people say, “Did you hear about the snow storm coming in tonight? We are supposed to get hammered!” I stare at them with a blank look. I much prefer the vision in my head, the optimistic side of me that instead secretly hoped to wake up rejoycing that we miraculously found a 70-degree February day. While this is good for my psyche, it isn’t necessarily helpful when I wake up to freezing rain, absolutely unprepared for the additional drive time my morning commute will require.

I’ve taken this same approach to buying our airline tickets for a trip we are taking NEXT WEEK. While I’ve been diligently researching flights for two months, our options have been fairly repulsive. In other words, paying $1600 to fly three people to Florida, with two connections each way and arrival times around the midnight hour, is not my idea of a vacation. I am not mentally prepared for Kate’s first flight, not to mention navigating multiple connections and subjecting myself to the absolute meltdown that will certainly take place between the hours of 9pm and midnight. And seriously people, if I am spending $1600 on airfare, that plane better be landing somewhere better than Ft. Myers.

So, I ignored it. I continued to think that maybe if I just waited, a much better scenario would come along.

It didn’t.

Then, Craig started to consider driving. The only thing worse than the travel arrangement described above would be the three of us in the car for 24-hours. I am developing a facial twitch just thinking about it. If I were a betting person, I’d put five-grand on Kate’s vocabulary expanding to include much more colorful language at the end of that car ride. I thought Craig was joking about this suggestion, but he wasn’t. Even more frightening, I caught myself in a moment of ENTERTAINING.THE.NOTION.

I feverishly got back online, trying to secure some flight arrangements that would put an end to this madness. On Airtran’s site (which we have to fly for a reason too exhausting to explain), I realized they sold tickets each-way, versus roundtrip only. I found an excellent price on RETURN trip tickets, so I booked three. I was apprehensive that if we waited for the THERE ticket prices to come down, we’d miss out on the great non-stop return flight.

We don’t have flights there, because at $950, I am still choosing to ignore that conundrum, hoping a solution will spontaneously appear. However, I’ve sufficiently obstructed any plans involving DRIVING to Florida by booking the return flight. I’m such a pain in the ass.