Yesterday morning when I was at the dealership dropping my car off I heard several people asking about someone named “Mickey.”
Specifically, they were asking things like, “Where is Mickey?” “Is Mickey out again?” and “Is Mickey coming in today?”
So this morning when I called in to say that no one had called me back yesterday to tell me how much this was going to cost, the guy I talked to said, “You mean Mickey didn’t call you?”
Apparently Mickey isn’t the most reliable employee they have…
As for the cost, I’m still not sure on that, as they’re waiting for a representative from Kia to stop by so they can try to talk him into having most of the work and parts covered by my warranty, which obviously would be cool.
Still, the costs that definitely aren’t covered are likely to take a decent chunk out of my discretionary income.
Even so, there is (or at least will be) more where that came from, so somewhere along the line I’ll probably splurge and buy something, thereby preventing myself from running into a “more money than I know what to do with” situation.
Of course, I do still have a problem of “more time off than I know what to do with,” as my vacation balance is continuing to accrue with no plans for getting away on the immediate horizon.
My next trip probably won’t be until January or so, at which point I’ll most likely head to Tucson for a little while.
But that’s not until next year, and I can only carry over 40 hours of vacation time, so somewhere along the line within the next few months I need to think of something to do.
Sure, I could just take the time off and hang out at home doing even more nothing than usual (which is what I’ve done in the past and will probably do again), but it occurred to me that maybe for once in my life I should actually do something and take a real vacation, not merely travel to someplace familiar to spend time with family and friends.
But where would I go?
Oh sure, there are lots of places in the world that people can travel to on vacation, but let me reiterate my question: where would I go?
Even for someone as...hmm, I’m at a loss for words here? Curmudgeonly? Apathetic? Ambivalent?
Anyway, even for someone as whatever-word-best-describes-my-reluctance-to-go-out-into-the-world-and-do-things as I am, there are places that I’d be willing to go (if not necessarily want to go), but most of them fall into one of two categories: Romantic/Family Getaways or Drunken Bacchanalias.
Obviously destinations designed for couples and families are less than ideal for me (though yeah, if I had someone to take with me I’d be perfectly willing to hit some romantic getaway), and my days of debauchery (sadly free of most forms of debauchery as they were) are pretty well behind me, so what travel options are available to a sober, single guy?
Of course, there is the obvious: singles cruises.
To be honest, I did actually find myself looking into that possibility the other day, though I imagine that the booze flows pretty freely on most of them, which could be a problem, to say nothing of the sheer mortifying humiliation I would feel if I actually paid money to go on one.
As desperate as I may be for “company,” I can’t really imagine myself going to such lengths (or expenses) to feed my desperation.
Hell, I can’t even bring myself to part with $25 a month to make use of any of the online personals (you can create a profile for free and perform searches, but actually contacting anyone costs money).
Besides, when I lived in Minnesota there was a girl where I worked who, so my boss informed me (when suggesting that I might look into doing the same), frequently went out on singles cruises.
To avoid getting into a lengthy description of this person that would only serve to offend people and make me look like a shallow jerk who puts too much stock in appearances, I’ll simply say that she had a great personality and leave it at that.
(My boss, on the other hand, was actually pretty hot. In fact, the oft-mentioned “Stone Face” looked rather a lot like a slightly younger and more voluptuous version of her, and, in fact sounded exactly like her.)
And while one person may not be a statistically valid cross-sample for a specific demographic, I suspect that the majority of women who go on those cruises have similarly great personalities.
(To be honest, she really didn’t have that great a personality; I was just trying to find a more polite way of saying that she was fat. She was sort of nice, but not really that dynamic a person. The splotchily-freckled receptionist working there, whom I got drunk and made out with one night, had a much more engaging personality.)
In any case, it seems that there really aren’t a lot of options available for me as far as going on a solo vacation.
I suppose that there are, as I so often hear about other activities, people who go off on vacations alone “all the time,” but the thing to remember is that we aren’t talking about “people,” we’re talking about me.
So yeah, looks like fifty extra hours of sitting at home doing nothing it is…
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