Ciao

I hate writing about blogging, and I hate being indecisive, so prepare yourself for some wishy washy metaocity. (That's not me in the picture, btw. I still haven't gotten to Venice.)

As I've stated numerous times over the past weeks, I'm off to Italy for a vacation, starting tomorrow afternoon, assuming that no one at the office bars my exit (And I'd like to see those bitches try: when I've handed work back to subordinates to fix, I've been saying, "I'm leaving at noon on Thursday. Not sometime after noon, not 1:30, not even 12:05. Noon. So you better have this back to me before close of business Wednesday because I'm leaving whether it goes out or not, and they might be mad at me, but I won't be here, and you will.") and that I finish packing tonight and tomorrow before I head to work, I'll be on a plane tomorrow evening and arriving in Venice (after a stop in Frankfort, I think, but I pretty much get off the plane where it stops because what are the options?) Friday morning.

I love travel. For years I traveled rarely and usually to places that were not all that interesting. Nowadays, I travel regularly enough for the experience to seem familiar but not so frequently that it becomes commonplace. (Italy certainly won't seem commonplace, especially since I've never been there.) B&c and I always have a great time, wherever we go. We especially have a good time in Europe, but that might be because the rooms often come with two beds that are very narrow, so narrow that b&c can straddle the bed and stand on the floor, which makes for some very fine sex where he has to do all the work.

All the same, I have mixed feelings about travel (but not about those beds). I get that it broadens the mind, but I am not often accused of narrow mindedness. Nor yet of being provincial, though I am undoubtedly so. But I suspect that many people who travel all the time are mostly trying to escape either boredom or home. Home shouldn't be something that you want to escape, and I reckon that if you're trying to escape boredom, it's already caught you.

In any case, I expect this to be my last overseas trip for some time. Why? I think the reason is best explained by the following graph:

Sadly, the graph (which, if it isn't obvious, shows how much of a Euro one dollar will buy) doesn't go back far enough to show you that towards the end of the Clinton administration, when the Euro came into being, the dollar was actually getting stronger. Indeed, if you traveled to Europe in 2000, a Euro could be had for about ninety cents. Nowadays, a Euro will cost you about a buck forty. This is a clear result of increasing U.S. deficits, for which we can lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the current administration. We bought our trip some months ago, when the situation was not quite as bad as it is now, and I have resigned myself to spending a lot on the trip, so I probably won't whinge much about it, but it might be a while before I want to spend so much on travel again, and there are still many places here in the U.S. that I haven't seen or explored sufficiently.

Anyway. In theory, I'm taking a laptop with me on the trip, but I'm not sure how well that'll work out or whether I'll be able to find WiFi, etc. I don't like laptops, and I don't understand connectivity, and I'm mostly taking this one so that I can download pictures to it so that my card doesn't get overloaded. So I may post while I'm over there, especially if there's connectivity at or near the lavenderie. (I love visiting foreign laundromats.) But I may not. I like blogging, but I mostly like it as an escape from the pressures and annoyances of the office, and I shouldn't have many of those while I'm on vacation.

I'm not sure how much of a habit writing this blog has become, but I'll be (mildly) disappointed with myself if I'm looking at mosaics or drinking wine or eating gellato and I start to think about writing about any of those things for the blog. As for my usual subject matter, it's extremely rare for me to hook up with anyone while I'm traveling with b&c. He and I will likely have a lot of sex, but it will not be something I'm eager to report on.

Anyway, I'm pretty certain to post again at some point, whether it's tomorrow, Saturday, or a week from next Monday. So until then, I hope that you're all having a splendid time, though, naturally, not so splendid a time as I'll be having.