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Is it now yet?

I can remember my own personal version of "Are we there yet?" My parents drove me to Dallas from Corpus Christi to visit relatives over some holidays when I was growing up. It was an 8 hour drive. I consider drives of that length a situation of "never" getting there. . . or it seems like you'll never get there.

I feel like I'm primed for some situation, but I don't know what it is. I'm ready to give this thing 100% of my attention and effort. It's some kind of mental challenge, some sort of task. . . and I'm all ready for someone to say "now," so I can get going with it. Personal impatience, I guess!

I'm psychologically primed for a "now" situation. I almost decided to make a little 3-day trip to Las Vegas on the 15th of October, but I talked myself out of it. My tutoring student is going to Las Vegas with his doctor/dad from October 14-18th. I asked if I could go at the same time to Las Vegas (He could say no?)--like we weren't "going" together but we'd be there at the same time. His midterm exam in history is the day after he gets back from Vegas. I jokingly said I needed to go along to make sure he spent some time studying.

I spent too many hours at Travelocity, CheapTickets, Hotels.com, etc., researching my options for lodging. Over about four days I watched the prices rise, and the availablity dwindle. I was waiting for a replacement credit card to arrive in the mail so that I could book the flight, and I watched all the best/cheapest but still nice hotels get booked up.

Then, when searching through the entertainment in Vegas, I figured out I could go on November 10th, see the Rolling Stones in their one Vegas Show at the MGM, and take care of casino business, and get me back home just as cheaply as trying to book something now.

Since my computer is calling to my checkbook presently, I'd be better off just staying home and enjoying the company of my six pets. Anyhow, I had a good time searching through what's happening in Vegas and doing some imagining. I stood as security at the stage for Barry Manilow in about 1976. Realizing that that was thirty years ago, almost to the day, perhaps I should go on to Vegas and stay at the Hard Rock where he's playing. I hate to admit that I've been a closet Manilow fan for a long time. I wonder where he's staying in Vegas. I would like to see him up close again.

But I started thinking about paying a pet sitter, and how I usually take a cab to and from the airport when I fly and it's about $50 each way in Dallas, and how a twenty dollar bill's worth of quarters can disappear before your seat gets tired of sitting. I sure am comfortable hanging around my house. The amount of hassle involved in plane travel was the deciding factor in me realizing it's not the right time for me to take a vacation. It was real fun dreaming.

If I have a gambling itch, I could scratch it just as well in Bossier City, Louisiana, or perhaps venture up to Winstar Casino in Oklahoma for the first time, and just go overnight, since either place is about a 4 hour drive. It's not that I'm a gambler. I just started thinking about how much fun I've had in casinos when David said he was going.

We prepare a written response to a history question each week, and we finished a bit early tonight. David can get intensely into studying, which is the way to do it. He left before midnight tonight. He gets here around 7:00 pm, we sometimes eat a quick bite of something, then dive into the books. One particularly challenging week, it was 1:40 am when he finished. I like that he has the determination to see a task through to its completion. It's an admirable quality I could use some practice in.

What would you say if you got on an elevator with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards? Imagination is better than reality. I'll be daydreaming until it's now, okay?