'Flights of Fancy' Takes on New Meaning

Ohhhh my, oh my, oh my... so much has been going on in so many LITTLE ways over the past 2 weeks, but nothing worth of mention (or more accurately, NO TIME to blog), not until this past Sunday!

BACKGROUND INFO: Late last year, I'd sadly passed up 'a chance of a lifetime' uber-generous offer made by my parents, unable to commit to any 'several-months-ahead-in-the-future' kinds of plans at the time, "not knowing what the leave limits of my new job in L.A. will be" - - Well, seeing now that I did not get a job in L.A., despite 92 formal job applications, and seeing that our plans for my moving to L.A., hell or high water, are now entirely on hold, the aforementioned previous offer, thought to have been missed, resurfaced a couple weeks ago.

After some renewed and enthusiastic coaxing efforts from both my father and my sister, and my step-mum, who has alllll along been absolutely insistent that we'd be utter fools not to accept, ever since the idea was first introduced to us nearly 2 years ago, I asked my honey-man, "Can we do it now?" Unfortunately for my honey-man, despite the willingness on the part of my parents to seek a larger 'flat' to accommodate us both, my honey-man's inability to commit due to his work is unchanged since last year, which is a big-huge-fat-rolling-tears kind of bummer of a lifetime, BUHHT upon his own insistence that I'd be a fool not to go, even without him, I will be going... as of this past Sunday, I even have my flights, so it's official!

So, what's this all 'bout then? Well, my lil' bro is graduating from H.S. this year, and he, like my sister had, will be taken by my parents on a trip to Europe. This time 'round though, we're all invited along for the event! The chosen travel dates, although they fall during prime tourist season, are meant to coincide with my brother's love of cycling = the Tour de France opening in London! So, um, yeah - - me and my Iowa fam, plus a friend of my sister's, we'll all be flying to London on June 28th to meet up with my popa-sahn, who will already be there for some bizznessy - - and we'll then all meet at Waterloo station to take the Eurostar to Paris, where we'll stay together for a week in a 4-bedroom flat with a view of the Eiffel Tower, perusing Parisian delights, returning to London in time for the Tour de France opening, then returning to the states, July 11th = Twelve solid days abroad.

Ummm... sooo, yeeeah. Guess I now have something definite to look forward to, eh? That and we still have our Ireland trip yet to plan, just me and my honey-man, together. And so much more to look forward to...