After planning and talking and getting excited about our trip to whichever cheap, all-inclusive resort we could find, my tropical vacation with Meg has been cancelled. After finding out yesterday (10 days before we were supposed to leave) that Meg can’t go, I’m left scrambling to try and salvage the time I’ve booked off and the money I’ve saved to go away. New York? I could, but a week would be too much on my own. LA? Mexico? A week in a tropical location on my own will be too depressing. But, when all else fails, good old dependable Montreal is always there to catch me when I fall. After getting some indication from my lovely Montreal friends that it would be okay for me to spring a visit on them at such short notice, I booked a flight to Frenchtown. Westjet is having a seat sale, so I managed to get a one-way ticket for $99 plus tax, which is the cheapest I’ve ever seen it advertised for. I’ve sent an email to my cousin in Toronto, so I may make a trip over to Toronto as well to visit her, if that works out. As much as Porter is a bitch for people who actually live in Toronto (as they fly out of the Toronto Islands and disrupt daily life for the convenience of business people), it’s cheap like borscht. Maybe I can swing a day trip to Quebec City? Rent a car and drive to New York City for a night? Who knows. I’ll figure something out. I have to be in Vancouver on July 26th to start the Simon Fraser book editing course I’m taking, but the week leading up to that is wide open. As much as I know I likely won’t do anything ‘crazy’, I like the feeling of freedom to do whatever I want, while actually having the money to do it.
I may not be spending my 28th birthday on a sunny beach, revelling in the fact that I am now benefiting from the years of busting my ass in school to get a good job and finally having money in the bank, but I’ll be spending it with some of the best people I’ve met in a city that has a piece of my heart.
