Thursday, March 20, 2008

books, travel, and places far away

One of my favorite things to do is browse books on Amazon.com. Any books. It doesn't even matter if there isn't a particular book I am looking for. I catch myself thinking, sometimes in the middle of a meeting at work, "I wonder if that Michael Pollan book price has dropped.." (Amazon posts these cool alerts at the top of your Shopping Cart page that lets you know when something has increased or decreased in price). Or I'll have another thought - "I wonder if Jhumpa Lahiri's new book is available in paperback yet..." Needless to say, these kinds of wonderings can be highly distracting, and not at all supportive of getting any work done.

One of my other favorite things to do is look for travel deals, and build make-believe vacations on Travelocity.com. Yesterday, I built a trip for two to the Cayman Islands in mid-May, for approximately $1600, total (that's right, not per person, TOTAL). That includes the round-trip airfare, 5 nights at a 4-star hotel with its own beach, and transportation to and from the airport. We can pack swimsuits and paperback books, eat cheaply while there, and spend our pocket money (if we wish to) on sight-seeing and activities like swimming alongside exotic fish, or exploring underwater caves. How fun would that be? I want to go on this trip. But I can't. Well, at least not this year.

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