The week started out with maximum stress but it didn't last and I went right back into pre-trip checking things off mode.
On Monday, I woke up to an email from Arena Travel, our tour company, asking for our flight arrangements and their wording set off alarm bells. I emailed to send our Helsinki to Riga flight and asked them to confirm that we were flying back to London with the tour. Nope. When we scheduled this all in May, the person we talked to had coded it that we were doing our own flights in both directions so they hadn't booked us tickets to fly back to London from Estonia. The back and forth began and long story short, we had to pay an extra 130 pounds each for the flight back.
During all the flight drama, we realized that Anne had booked the VRBO in London for the weekend after we're back and of course, it wasn't available the prior weekend. I was in full on panic mode at this point but messaged John and asked him to find us somewhere in London to stay. He got right on it (he loves travel planning) and emailed a list later that day. There were all further out than I wanted so after knitting, I went to Trivago and found a hotel by Paddington and a few blocks from Hyde Park, which is my sweet spot for staying in London. I called Anne and we booked it, despite not having the final word from Arena. I woke up Tuesday morning to an invoice for the flights, which I promptly paid. With that payment and the hotel sorted, the stress instantly left my body. I felt like the trip was not only all set but pre-drama'd so had nothing else to worry about so headed to campus to work.
I had a shot in my thumb at 4:00 and was out of Nebraska Ortho in less than 5 minutes - no exaggeration. I stopped at Rene's to see her half done kitchen renovation and was home early. Nice. Wednesday was another campus day and I was almost done with space and had picked up the next books for book club, which will meet while I'm away, and took a late lunch to go to a Vietnam documentary screening that afternoon. It was financed by the woman who wrote Death Zones and Darling Spies, which we'd read for book club, and was very interesting. At 5:00, I met Rene and Anne for Thanksgiving dinner in the dorms. The turkey was absolutely delicious and it was nice to have some since we'll be flying on Thanksgiving Day so unless they serve turkey on the plane, we won't have any. I was home in time for Survivor so it was a nice day. Things were absolutely looking up.
Thursday was another good day. It's always joyful to work from home after 2 days in a row on campus and I got my entire kitchen picked up before work. I then finished space and sent the file off. Add a Ripples professional development zoom and it was a banner day. I had finished a pair of socks for a Christmas gift the night before and started another pair for another Christmas gift. I was cranking on the Christmas knitting. Yay all around for this day's accomplishments. My last list item for the week was a haircut after lunch on Friday and before you know it, it was the weekend.
While I still had pre-trip things on my list to check off, I was feeling so much better about life that I was able to head to Fremont for spinning on Saturday without stressing. Andrea and I did our usual route - Restore before spinning and our errand stops afterwards, ending with sushi for an early supper.
I got up Sunday and made a new list first thing. First up was to prep a box of yarn for my sister. I had a huge Chewy box and was able to pack it all up, making for the biggest box I've ever sent. It cleaned up the front room and spare bedroom floors. Gone is good. That done, I spent the rest of the day puttering - clearing surfaces, making stacks to pack, sorting laundry.... before sitting down to a night of PBS and knitting, during which I finished the shortie socks I'd started on Friday morning. Fastest socks ever and only one more Christmas gift left to knit.
If you celebrate, have a Happy Thanksgiving.
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