We're going to California next month! We're really really going!!!

I just booked the tickets today. It's a done deal. No last-minute backing out, which is what happened the previous two times we were supposed to go (Christmas and my friend's wedding).

In order to get the lower price we are having to stay a few days longer than I'd originally planned. Yeah, I'm real broken up about that. Madalyn will miss five days of school, total, but she is at the head of the class so it shouldn't set her back any.

We will be going March 8th and coming back March 22nd.

By the time I get out there it will have been 8 months since my last visit. That is a new record for the longest amount of time since I've been there since I moved away over 9 years ago. The previous record was 6 months. I am NOT okay with how the time between visits has been getting longer and longer over the past couple of years. Hopefully this wil be the last record set in this category.

I had some initial guilt over spending the money. Robert JUST deposited it in the bank this morning and it was gone in a flash. Plus two years of being broke has conditioned me to want to sit on money as long as possible. But we really can spare it right now; it's not taking food off the table or preventing us from paying the rent. And I'm rapidly overcoming the guilt when I think of being HOME and eating at all my favorite haunts and just resting.

Oh, and one more thing? We are flying from Oklahoma City to San Luis! Let me spell this out for those who don't know. My parents live halfway between San Francisco and L.A. The nearest airport to them is a small, regional airport in San Luis Obispo, 15 minutes away. Being a small, regional airport the prices to fly into there are usually prohibitive; or have been since we've been broke. This means I usually end up flying into Santa Barbara (2 hour drive), San Jose (3 hour drive) or, worst of all, LAX (4 hours). Also add to it the fact that I have been flying out of Dallas lately to get there, and that is a 2.5 hour drive, so you're looking at up to 6.5 hours in the car along with your 3-4 hours of flying. For any childless readers out there, allow me to inform you that this, with a 2-year-old and 5-year-old in tow, is Not Fun. Even the hallowed portable DVD player can only go so far in taking the edge off before it, too, must fail. So imagine my delight that, this trip, we will drive a mere hour-and-fifteen minutes to get to the airport and be facing only a 15-minute drive once we arrive. BIG sigh of relief.

Have I mentioned yet that I expected 2006 to be thousands of times better than 2005? We're definitely starting out on the right foot (knock wood).