Monthly Archives: June 2012

So, I did set some goals for us to have completed by the end of this weekend, and it is dangerously close to the end of this weekend, so here is my report on that aforementioned completion:

I believe I said I would have booked something, anything. I didn’t. Credit card too full.

I also said I would have decided which Central American city we would go to first. Did that. The winner is…Belize! More specifically, Caye Caulker, which I think will be a very pleasant way to ease into the new culture and climate (unless of course, it’s hurricane season in which case being on a five mile long, one mile wide Island might not actually be the way to go). But what with the tropical breezes and the sandy streets and the no vehicles, I’m thinking I will probably not want to leave.

I can’t remember off the top of my head what the other goals were. One of them was probably to breathe. Still struggling with that one. We do, however, have flights picked (on airlines other than Spirit obviously), and all that remains is to actually book them. And we even have a second destination in mind – Tikal, Guatemala.

So, all is not lost. As far as the goal setting goes, I’d say on a scale of 1-10, I’d give myself a 6.5. But I definitely get a 10 for effort!

I was so excited yesterday; I discovered a flight that was going to save our family $2000! I couldn’t understand why it hadn’t come up before on any of the searches I had done. I went to the website – Spirit Airlines – all looked legit. It was an American airline, not a third-world operation or anything, so in my head I thought, “OK, this is fantastic – we will be able to do so much more now that we are saving so much on flights!”.

At some point that afternoon, I remembered the old adage, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” so I decided to look online to see if anyone else had flown with Spirit Airlines. And they had. Some of the most articulate and disgusted people in the world have evidently flown with Spirit, and they really like to rant about it.

After my initial disappointment at the realization that yes, it was actually too good to be true, and no, we would not be saving $2000 or doing any extra stuff, I continued to read the reviews purely for entertainment purposes. Here are a few sample quotes:

The minute you have to start dealing with the people at Spirit, you are toast!

They suck.

Spirit couldn’t pay me to fly with them.

This is not an airline; it is a stale, worm-infested sardine can with wings.

You’re better off swimming or jogging to where you need to go.

I’d rather chew my arm off than fly Spirit again. F you Spirit. F you hard.

Never. Never. Never again.

One star since we did actually arrive at our destination without a death.

NO NO no no no no NO DON’T DO IT! 

Evil Spirit

One of my main goals in life is to put Spirit Airlines out of business.

The ultimate worst.

So, there you have it. I guess we won’t be getting “Spirited” away any time soon!

Although it seems ridiculously late for this, and if you are reading this, you are probably questioning our sanity, but we finally sat down last night with a calendar and loosely mapped out the next three months. And I do mean loosely. As in, on July 29 we will leave PEI. One week later we will arrive in Florida. Two days later we will fly to some unknown destination in Central America…..all culminating in flying to England on October 4. But at least it’s something!

In a way,  this does make me feel a little better, because it’s the beginnings of an actual plan, but on the other hand, it makes me panic, because how is it that we have known about this trip for 4 years and one month before we leave, all we have is a loose plan for the first 3 months? Another thing that makes me somewhat anxious is the fact that although we do have this calendar, we have no flights booked, no accommodation booked – nothing booked. I think I need to book something. Yes, that’s what I need to do. Tomorrow, I will book a flight, or a hotel, or something…

How does this happen? How do we wait until the very last moment to do stuff? There are theories out there that would suggest we are actually creating chaos in our lives because we LIKE it. Can this be true? Evidence would certainly suggest that this may be the case. But I still refuse to believe it. Surely, this state of panicked existence can’t be what I strive for? Surely not.

I remember last summer,  feeling like I needed to do some serious planning, and then I got all anxious and decided to give myself permission to wait. Then I felt better. Now I don’t.

OK. It’s OK. It will all be OK. I just need to do something concrete and then I will feel better. I think I need some SMART goals! By the end of this weekend I will have booked at least one flight (possibly two), and I will have more destinations on the calendar. I will  have decided which Central American destination we will fly to initially. I will also have called someone to find out what inoculations we need to travel there.

Ahh, I just noticed that I am perpetuating one of the problems which leads to my panic. I’m issuing a correction. WE. We will complete these SMART goals by the end of this weekend. I am owning this and it’s not mine, it’s OURS.

It WILL be ok. Planning should be fun. And it WILL be fun. Fun weekend of planning, here WE come!