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!

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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)))

[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

[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*