For whatever reason I sat down at the computer at around 1:20 this morning, when I really should've been heading for bed, and looked up tickets on Travelocity. They had not improved. Prices were still high plus the times were crummy. Suddenly something urged me to look on Hotwire. I'd looked up other tickets there in the past and gotten no results cheaper than anywhere else.

So, imagine my surprise when the website turned up a ticket for Oklahoma City to Denver for $173 -- total!! I jumped on that like a rat on a Cheeto. I never would've dreamed I could go from OKC -- Dallas is always cheaper. I don't know what posessed me to put that in first -- wishful thinking, I guess. That is so much better on so many levels: less gas driving to and from, less time in the car for the kids, etc. It's a good hour/hour-and-a-half closer than Dallas.

As if this wasn't enough the times are also perfect. I was slightly concerned when I decided to go ahead and book the ticket. Part of the 'hook' of Hotwire is you don't know the airline or the flight times until you book. They do promise you it's on a "major" airline and that it's not a red-eye. However, it still could've been leaving at 6 a.m. or something, and living 90 miles from the airport -- well, that would've sucked out loud. But I don't leave OKC until 3:50 p.m. Coming back I leave Denver at 12:30 (so I don't have to get up super-early that day) and arrive in OKC at 3:00. We'll be home at a decent time instead the middle of the danged night! Also these times mean that we won't have to pull Madalyn out of school for part of the day. She can just stay at the after-school program and Robert/we should be back, both days, in time to pick her up.

So I am one happy camper this morning. The money we made at our garage sale this past weekend covers my ticket with some left over, which will pay for part of my hotel. Not only is my conscience soothed but my stress level has decreased dramatically knowing Robert won't have to make another Dallas run and that I won't have to get up at dark-thirty to make any of my flights. (The Incorrigible Night Owl? SO not a morning person.)

I'm really way more spoiled than I've any right to be. I think this one was divine intervention, I'm telling you. The cosmic universe wants me to go see Paul. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

And now, if you'll excuse me, this happy camper is going the hell back to bed, which is where anyone who was up until 2:20 a.m. should be right now.

(By the way, if you haven't been here in a few days, do scroll down and read the entry below this one. It's a rather major breaking news story.)