Few more Portland pics and moaning about airfares

[thrihyrne]

Today I had another IKEA adventure with my downstairs neighbor. We also stopped by the DMV so I could get a booklet to read and study before I contemplate trying to take the written test to get an Oregon driver's license. I'm glad he was with me; he went inside and got forms and the book, thank goodness, because there was nowhere to park! He said there were probably 150 people there. I think I'll wait until I'm on my regular shift so I can go in mid-day on a Thursday.

We went to Ikea and I ended up buying a bedframe, slats, sheets, and a new, much thicker mattress. I assembled the bed this afternoon and I'm just thrilled. It's so comfortable. WOW. A month after I've moved, and at last I'm no longer sleeping on a thin mattress. This will doubtless do tremendous things for my mental health as doubtless I'll sleep better and quit being so achey all the time!


The first one is of the AAA building where I'll be working. I didn't mention this yesterday, but they have a thing called 'Friday Surprise,' and it turns out that at the end of the day, one by one each of us took a live call, hands shaking, scared out of our minds. But we all survived. It wasn't the suavest, smoothest call in the world (mine), but neither was it a complete travesty. And thanks to that, I've not been obsessing nearly as much as I would have. I've also come to an inner reconciliation about it all: I'll do my best and not worry about speed. I'm there to take care of people with a quality of service, and that's what I'll do. Speed will come, or it won't.

So... here's the building.


And here's my new bed!!


My room, and an interesting bit of metalwork I picked up from the Pier 1 in Harrisonburg last spring but had never hung up anywhere until now:


The house owner here has a daughter, Miranda, aged 9, who's here just about every other weekend and sometimes during the week. She's here this weekend and made a cat home with boxes, a towel, and a cat toy on a stick. Tigey, the cat, loves it.



In craptastic news, I'm doing research into air fares to get to London and back for the conference in October, also seeing veloona and callumjames. Callum, you will be around in mid-October, right??! I'd love to get over to Ireland for a few days as well, but figure I can finagle those logistics closer to time. I'm appalled at the air fares, and can't even think of the spending money since the £ is double the US dollar. Ouch. But $920 from Baltimore to London and back?? WTF?! I'm used to spending $1500 to get to Australia, but I've never spent more than $600 from the east coast to the U.K. Anybody have any suggestions?

Hope you're having a good weekend. I'm off to do some beta'ing. I'd also love to see some pictures/videos of any Olympics diving, but I'm so out of the loop and I don't think that any has happened yet. ♥

Comments

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

Airfares have really jumped in the past couple of years, mostly due to the price of oil - I used to be able to find fares from the central US to the UK for between $800-900, but now it's at least $1100-1200 or more. *sighs*

Your bed looks lovely and comfy, and I'm glad that the surprise live call went well and that you feel more confident now about the real thing!

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Yuck. Well, I'll probably just go ahead and make sure my dates and flights are all corresponding and bite the bullet. I can always make more money, but this opportunity is quite unique.

I do feel a bit more comfortable, though I've still had to force myself not to obsess at various points through the weekend. Doubtless that will go away in time. And my bed! It was such a joy to crawl into last night. :D

[elfscribe5.livejournal.com]

Bed looks great. So glad you'll be getting a good night's sleep. (cute kitty)
And re: air fares. I know. Sigh. You could try priceline,
http://travel.priceline.com
and put in a bid if you're willing to be very flexible about when you go.

How are you doing?

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Yes, the bed was tremendous to be able to slide onto last night. A proper bed! With a soft mattress! :trembles:
I did try priceline; that's where I found the $920. I have *no* flexibility, that's part of the issue. I'll be using a Southwest Airlines reward ticket to get from here to the east coast, and I only have a very finite number of days off from work, so I have to pick my dates quite exactly. Still, it's worth it.

I'm doing okay! This morning I'm having to deal with a check to my credit card company that got lost in the mail, and the fact that my credit card company *still* hasn't changed my address. I'm not pleased. :P

[stormwynd.livejournal.com]

Yay for Ikea! You put me to shame, since I have yet to replace the Ikea bed frame that somehow went missing when I moved to San Francisco. (I have all the pieces except for the metal spine that lets it actually support weight.) The mattress is plenty comfy, but it's been sitting on the floor since I came here.

I made 2 calls to AAA when I still lived in Delaware and had a car. Both times, I had broken down in northern New Jersey. What help me the most was that both times, the person on the other end of the phone was patient, reassuring, and actually listened to me and went out of his/her way to reassure me that everything was going to be all right. That mattered much more to me than speed -- I figured that my car was likely going to have to get towed, so "speed" was sort of out of the picture anyway. What I'm trying to say here is that at least for me, your instinct to not worry about speed would have been spot on.

That metal wall hanging is awesome. It really appeals to the mathematician in me for some reason.

Kitty! *snuggles the kitty*

And yikes, airfares are horrific right now, or at least that's what all my friends who are trying to arrange travel right now tell me. The fact that you're going to Europe and therefore have to deal with the lousy exchange rate on top of fares raised by oil prices makes it that much worse. I have no useful advice, I'm afraid, just my sympathies.

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Hey there! It was such a joy to be able to climb into bed last night, lol. The simple pleasures in life.
Thank you for your anecdotes, as well; I do want to take care of people, that was the more 'noble' aspect of doing customer service for AAA versus other companies, so I'll hold your situations in the forefront of my mind during these first few nerver-wracking days. Or weeks!

The wall hanging is great; I'm glad finally to have it up on the wall.

I do think I'll bite the bullet and just go. I'd been planning this for some time, and the airfares simply will be what they are. I do appreciate your sympathy, though!! ;)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

When my mother was sick, I went from NYC to Indiana twice in one month and both times the airfares were horrific and I took really crappy flights with ridiculous changes, not direct. And one of the sets of reservations was made with advance notice. Sorry! Maybe you can find a special deal since you have a little time.

Last time I flew British Airways from NYC to London the price actually went down closer to the travel date. A friend of mine who ended up going with me, on the same flight, got her tickets only a few days before we left and paid more than $100 less than I did. But I can hardly tell you to wait on the off chance that could happen.

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know that I want to chance it, so I'll probably just go ahead and book it all today or tomorrow. I can worry about the finer details of logistics closer to time. Sometimes fares do go down, but I don't think that I can count on that.

Thanks for sharing your anecdotes!!

[veloona.livejournal.com]

Hey, sweetie!
How good that you now have a comfortable bed!
I have a huge bed with an ornamental white metal frame, since my Scandinavia trip I could sleep on any rock as well! *lol* Still, a nice, soft bed is wonderful! XD
I don't know anything about the airfares, but I do know it must be quite expensive...
That whole thing in Northampton will cost me more than I can actually afford, too. Even if it's not about the flight for me, as that is already paid for.
The cat on the picture is cute!
I hope I'll get the photos from my trip soon, so that I can post some and send more to you as well. They should be lovely, and I hope they'd give a bit of an expression how it had looked like where I was.
(((hugs you madly)))

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Hey there, lovely!! I'm going to write you a nice long email this morning; thanks so much for writing to me. After your trip, no doubt you *could* sleep anywhere!! So glad to hear that you have a huge bed and it sounds beautiful.

I know what you mean about the trip. I've just battled with my credit card company about changing my address and late fees and whatnot. :sigh: Still, I know that this trip is a wholly unique opportunity and I can always make more money. The chance to meet Storm and you at the same time? Totally worth it!! And thanks for mentioning Easy Jet; perhaps I'll take them from Gatwick to Belfast for a quick jaunt to Ireland. We'll see. :)

XOXOX

[freestylerocker.livejournal.com]

The cat is sooo cute, although I normally don't like cats ;D
Mou... and I still want to to go that con too, but without money that one will be impossible for me *sniffs* So have fun for me, will ya?
*hugs*
<3

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

I will do so!! I'm sorry I won't get to meet you during this trip over the ocean, but there's no small part of me that keeps thinking about trying to become fluent in German and truly moving over. So... you may yet see me over in your neck of the woods!

I'll give my beloved Rain hugs for you. :)

I love cats; definitely a cat person, far more than any other creature. Though I do also like snakes. As far as conventional pets go, however, it'll be cats all the way.

[freestylerocker.livejournal.com]

Yay! Move to Germany! My love could give you German lessons :D

I'm more a dog person *laughs* There's no dog who doesn't like me. And there was only one cat who loved me... xD

[verdenia.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Tigey is lovely!!! I ♥ tigeys. ;p
(My family's cat is a Tiger / Tigey as well) ;D

Big hooray for the comfy and lovely new bed, and the helpful downstairs neighbor! Cool metalwork, too. ;D

Yay for frightening but confidence-boosting training, too, and yes, quality of service is paramount.

& yeah, airfare is just expensive now! One site to check out is http://farecast.live.com/
It can be helpful with large cities.

My sympathies! Nice to see an update from you! I was away so long! ;p

*HUGS*

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Isn't Tigey beautiful? The funny thing is that I came home tonight, having worked over an hour of overtime as it was to avoid some traffic, and I was the only human being in the house. This is incredibly rare. There was Billy (Rachel's cat) on the table, looking forlornly at me as though to say, "You're not Rachel!" and Tigey sprawled on the floor. Jim, downstairs neighbor with whom I've had a couple of Portland adventures, is nearly always here. So for me to come home on a Friday evening and it be just me was rather disconcerting, actually.

Work is much less worrisome, though I'm applying for a position at Reed College, just a bus-ride down from where I am, and doing things that I've done in my past and I'd love to do again. I'd switch jobs in a heartbeat, really.

I miss you!! And you're off to Burning Man in not long, yes? I thought of you a week or so ago (in particular, not in general, as you're quite often in my thoughts, lol) as there was a sign in a consignment shop that said, "Get your Burning Man outfit here!" I immediately thought of you, of course. I also got to see snottygrrl's pics from KiwiBurning, the NZ version of burning man. I might do better there; fewer people! ;P

((((huge hugs)))) I'll write you properly soon. You can read it whenever you're back in town for a little while. *g*

[verdenia.livejournal.com]

Hee at Reed College--I remember being in HS and reading about students taking finals up in trees, and thought that was SO cool. ;p

OMG I miss you so! It was so lovely having you here. I'm enjoying my current houseguest kabal42 muchly as well. ;p

Yeah, we leave in a week! Eeeps! Heh. Packing to do, yipes, I say! Yay for b'man outfits -- I betcha some parts of Portland will be a ghost town during b'man. So if there is a hipster coffee house you've been wanting to check out, but it is always busy -- this may well be the time to go! ;P

I've heard of KiwiBurning! Very cool! Yeah, definitely less people at the Regionals, and a way to ease into it. There is a Portland regional every summer, I know, called Soak. :P

*HUGE HUGS* to you!!! ♥ !