Monday, December 18, 2006

This is nuts

Got home from Honolulu on Friday. As D- says, "home" is monochromatic at this time of the year. After the sunshine and orchids of Waikiki, home feels like watching a movie in black and white, gray and muted. Today I am in Washington, DC. Though it's also winter (of sorts) here, the winter colors tend more toward shades of brown and green. The coloring is still winter, but not so depressing.

I got to DC early yesterday morning, having spent the night on three flights via Las Vegas. That's the nuts part. I was only a couple thousand miles short of making the next frequent flyer status level. I've heard stories of people booking a flight to Alaska, then turning around and coming home to meet year-end mileage requirements. Maybe next year I'll see if Guanaco is up for a visit. But this year I spent an afternoon researching flight options and discovered that, for a mere $200 (extra) and 26 hours of travel time, I could expand my scheduled trip to DC and get the extra miles. I'll find out next year whether it was worth it. That flight from LAS to DTW in a fully booked coach was pretty miserable.

Today in addition to business I have a rehearsal with my favorite piano/string trio, and tomorrow cello quartet followed by the annual Christmas "party" with my old orchestra. A little seasonal music-reading is what the doctor ordered to call up some Christmas spirit after this month of travel. And after I get some rest I have some thoughts about memorizing music, practice journals, and studio classes I want to post.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anytime. Bring your cello!

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute, now I can lend you my electrocello - I just need an amp...

Is it really worth all that extra flying time? 26 hours! I loathe flying so much that I'd happily give up potential miles just to get there sooner. I'd sooner drive from Alaska than fly.

gottagopractice said...

Electrocello. Good idea. I'm not likely to splurge for a cello seat on an extra mile journey, though I might could bring my Prakticello. I'd still need an amp.

It's 26 hours of travel time, broken into one day and a longer night, but only about 15 hours of flight time, and I'd be doing 4 of those anyway. The Hawaii flights were a good preparation... it doesn't feel so bad *grin*.

Worth it? I dunno. I spent 46,000 miles in the air other than these this year. I thought that spending more of next year's miles in First Class might be nice. But I won't know until I try it.