So, you have a great day at work as things are calming down and you’re all caught up. The stress of the last couple of months starts to fade away, and that crick in your neck from constant computer ticket attack mode is slightly less noticeable. You feel great, and you feel even better when you find out that your vacation pay is on the way… oh yes, a week’s pay directly in your pocket. This is you:

Elated, flabbergasted, you struggle to find the right words as you realize this will make up for the $500 you’re behind from buying the wonderful camera with which you used to take these hysterical pictures. Finally, back on track!

“Out of my way world!” you say with gusto as you excitedly dial, no wait (you’ve decided to play it cool), as you confidently dial the nearest health department. You explain where you’re going and halfway through the list of countries the doctor interjects, “You’re going to need everything, you.”

“Everything?” you say.

“Everything.”

In a final attempt to make the most of an unexpected turn of tone, and mainly to keep the cool-vibe you’ve had going thus far, you throw caution to the wind. “Sign me up.”
“Ok, that’ll be 20,000 travel shots at $20,000 a piece.”

The blank stare on your face turns to horror as you realize not only are you getting a million jabs, but you are also going to pay a million dollars for them. So much for back on track! This is you:

Maybe next time little girl, maybe next time.

*See the vaccinations we end up getting, and how much they cost us, here.

Nothing special about this Friday afternoon. Brian and I were out running errands for a bit, but when pulling into our parking lot, we heard a commercial about McDonald’s fish sandwich. There was something about the sound of fried fish that sounded quite tasty – could have been the fact that I had nothing but a piece of peanut butter bread for lunch, or just the delirium of actually getting out of the apartment – I uttered the words I’m not usually known to utter:
“I feel like fish.” 

Brian was floored. Only moments before he was ready to come home, but the thought of getting fish… Well let’s just say we don’t have that very often. (No, I’m not a fish/seafood person if you can’t tell from the story thus far.) We immediately circled around the apartment building and back on the street. Now to find a place. 

Since we are budgeting for the trip, it was a definite “no” on the Red Lobster. Where could we get the most bang for our buck fried fish? Then it hit me. Cracker Barrel, duh! They have a Friday night cod special that comes with 2 sides and biscuits or corn muffins – sure to leave you full. CBarrel it was.

We got there early, not even 5:00pm yet, thinking we could get in and get out. Wrong. The parking lot was packed and there were 2 tour busses in the lot. D’oh. Oh well, we’re getting fish. No harm in a wait, so we waited. It was twenty-five minutes of knick-knack hell, but hey, its ok, we’re getting fish! And FINALLY, get fish we did – ate it until we were full.
The fish dinner came with four pieces of fried cod, French fries, baby carrots, and ooooooh corn muffins and apple butter. I doused on some malt vinegar, dipped in some tartar sauce, and enjoyed one tasty bite after the next. And don’t forget the iced tea. Cracker Barrel wouldn’t be complete without that drink to wash it all down.

It was a good dinner. We chitchatted about our day and tried to unwind in preparation for the weekend. A table next to us pointed towards the window, and naturally, my eyes followed. Snow flurries were coming down in a not-so straight pattern from the wind. It looked worse than it actually was, and as soon as the flurries started, they began to dissipate much like a snow globe right after its shaken. I turn away and notice that trademark peg game on the table, but eh, why even bother picking that up. I solve the damn thing every time. (Yes, I am a genius.) 

When I couldn’t eat another bite, I decided we should leave. I grabbed my coat and smiled to myself. “Brian, this was a great idea. My brain feels smarter already from all this omega-3.” He chuckled and agreed.

Outside, the snow was starting to come down again, but it wasn’t really sticking. Being from Illinois, you kind of learn to just deal with it, especially by March, so we hopped in the jeep and onto I-55. It was probably about 6:00pm now, so there was some Friday evening traffic, but surprisingly there was a heavy patch way ahead and behind us, with the occasional speed-demon zipping by. We basically had this section of the 3 lane interstate to ourselves, which was extremely nice since we were content with our big dinner and taking it slow. It just wasn’t bothering us when people were zipping by, and instead of speeding up, we just kept in the far right lane, enjoying our time on the open road.

The wind was blowing the snow around a bit, but we didn’t think anything of it… nothing until…

“Hey look at that car over on the other side… he’s backwards.” I was pointing across to the shoulder for the lanes going in the opposite direction. We were separated by a small concrete wall and three lanes.

We were going over a long overpass at about 55mph (we could have been going much faster, but was taking it easy because of the snow), and just as I finished pointing at the car on the other side, something clicked that maybe we needed to slow down, only it was too late. Halfway through that thought the car started to spin to the left on the ice that we couldn’t see. We crossed 3 lanes of traffic (luckily there were no cars immediately there) spinning towards my side of the vehicle. There was no time; this was it I thought. I grabbed Brian’s arm and prepared for the worst.

The front right end of the jeep hit the concrete wall and we finished the 180 degree spin by sitting on the shoulder uninjured, but very startled. It took a second to realize what had happened. “I’m OK, are you OK?” we both asked each other. We thought we made it through the scary part, only at that moment we look to the left and see another car doing same thing but hitting the rail on the opposite side. Brian started freaking out saying, “We need to get off this overpass or we’ll get hit!” He was right. He started up the engine, flipped the flashers on, and drove in the opposite direction off the overpass, cars still continuing to speed past us into the icy part.

Insert pictures of jeep. (maybe someday i’ll get around to this)

“SLOW DOWN PEOPLE!” I wanted to yell. Couldn’t they see the condition of our vehicle?… the flashers?… us driving in the opposite direction on the shoulder???

We made it a ways from the accident site and parked, trying to figure out our next step. The traffic was pretty heavy now, so we couldn’t just turn around and go in the proper direction. Finally, a cop stopped (probably just a few minutes later) and we told him the condition of the overpass. He said we should head home as we were drivable, and eventually a patch cleared up where we could turn around going in the proper direction.

We headed back up the overpass. Traffic had slowed down a lot, and we saw why when we passed the spot where we initially hit….

A car hit the wall right next to Brian’s bumper and was flipped over. A semi hit the side rail trapping a car in between. Other cars were smashed on the rail. Cops everywhere, cars flung everywhere. All driving normally not seeing the ice that had just appeared. It was a definite scare and wake-up call for the both of us.

It’s been over a week since the accident, and it still gets us, the thought of what could have been that night. I’m convinced it was from all that omega-3 that Brian was so quick-minded to get off the overpass right away. Otherwise, we probably would have been smashed with the semi and the flipped car. I’m also glad we were in Brian’s jeep instead of my dinky cavalier. We are very lucky.

Brian’s also convinced of one thing. He should have known it was too good to be true when I started off the evening with, “I feel like fish.”

Unfortunately, this post doesn’t really have any straightforward theme/story to tie it all together, so what you see is what you get. This post is purely a look at where we are and where we want to go from here. T-minus 10 months; 42.85 weeks; 300 days ’til take-off.

February money goal:
If you read the last post, you would know that my money goal was the magic number, $11k. However, I only managed to make it to $10,500. Hmm… was I being overly anxious? No, I would have made my goal, but I ended up buying my Canon Digital Rebel XT! It was a long and stressful process, but I managed to find a good deal, only after nearly missing an extreme rip-off on ebay and other outbidding mishaps. I settled for buying used from adorama.com, and so far I am very happy with my decision. The camera body/battery/accessories kit cost me $395, and I then found a Sigma 70-300mm DG lens on E-bay that ended up costing another hundred. So far I’m at $500 (thus why I missed my $11k goal) and I would like one more lens (birthday in May! anyone?), specifically the Sigma 17-70mm DC Macro. I think those two lenses will make a great combo pack for the trip!

Part-time job:
You’ll be happy to know I finally found another part-time job as a test scorer. It only lasts a month, but it pays $12/hour, which is even better topped off by the fact that I will get to work from home! The job starts in April and should bring in at least $700 after taxes. Woot!

Summer/Fall housing:
Brian is going to be working in NY again for the summer, and instead of going through the pain of being separated as we were last summer, I’m going with him (I love having a portable job). Now comes the tricky part - If we renew our current lease (it ends in June) we will:

-have to pay for at least a month of rent past December
-have to pay for two apartments for the entire summer
-have to worry about the stuff we have in the apartment all summer; move stuff out of apartment and move it back in to avoid that worry
-have to find a summer subleasor and worry about our stuff with someone we don’t know; move stuff out of apartment and back in at end of summer to avoid that worry

These ideas were just not cutting it with us, so we’ve come to the conclusion to not renew our current lease, find a furnished 1 bedroom apartment for just the fall semester, and to start storing/selling our possessions before NY. We have been looking and found a furnished 1 bedroom apartment for the fall semester. The rent is cheaper than what we are paying now (we have a 2 bedroom), so we will be saving more money for the trip. The furnished part means we only have to move what we need - computer and clothes - making the whole moving 3 times in one year part less painful. And, we will only have to worry about rent for months we will actually be living there. How nice!

Selling my car:
Since I started saving for the trip, I’ve resented my car. I am dying to get rid of the stupid thing, because, honestly, I hardly ever drive it. I work from home, and really only need it for groceries and if I want to drive to see my parents on the weekend. Other than that, it is a costly beast that taunts me from my office window. I was going to wait until November-ish to sell the damn thing, but am thinking of just bumping that up to May. The car is going to be my come-home fund. I am going to put the money I get from selling it into a CD so it can collect interest while on the road, but hey, if I can start accumulating interest sooner, more power to me, right?

Trip fund:
I keep making test itineraries/budgets so I can get a better idea of the type of money we want to save for the trip. I think what we are both shooting for is $25k each, and that is after all necessary pre-trip costs (medical, vaccines, insurance, first leg of flights, gear) have been dealt with. So, I’m thinking we will need to be able and make $30k in order to meet our $25k goal (this is a broad guestimation, and I like to overshoot). Brian seems to be well on his way - he is kicking my butt in the money sector. But, will I make that goal? Let’s see!

Current progression:
Current money = $10,500
Putting $1500 away normally each month for 10 months = $15,000
Income tax return = $1000
April scoring job = $700
Total = $27,200

Guestimations:

Birthday & Christmas = $1000
Selling belongings = $250 (keeping most things of value; computer/guitar)
Fall part-time job = $2000
Interest = $400
Grand Total = $30,850
Seems to be that if I just keep on keepin’ on I should be golden.

Other items of interest:
The government might be watching us, but guess what! We’re watching you, too! (insert pic)