Home > Still Traveling > Archives > 2005 > July > 07 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USHate it when that happens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let me say this up front, I love my family, I love my husband’s family. It’s a big love fest. I love them so much I even want to see them regularly, and that’s when I start hating them all.
Have you ever tried to coordinate everyone’s schedules so you can actually get together in person — not with e-mail, not on the telephone, but actually face-to-face? Last summer, we met one of my sisters and one of my brothers and their spouses for a week in Orange Beach, Ala. My other sister and spouse also were planning to come, but their plans changed, and my other brother and his spouse were invited but couldn’t work out their schedules. This planning started a full year before, a full year! We settled on a week in June and everyone started making plans to be off that week, and three couples made it. We only made part of the week, delayed by an unexpected visit from my husband’s sister and family. But still, it was a wonderful week we plan to repeat. We couldn’t get it together for this year, though.
This year, it’s a whole other hassle with a whole other set of family. It’s a circus, or in this case, a carnival. My husband wants to see his elderly aunt this summer in Peru, Ind., and he wants to time the trip to meet up with his cousin, who owns a traveling carnival. When’s the carnival going to be in that area? Well, sometime in July, I’m was told early in June, but just when seems to be classified information. Hello? Isn’t this July already?
And then there are two friends I’m trying to coordinate with for a weekend in August, or perhaps September or perhaps October in Arkansas, and three friends I’m trying to coordinate with for a weekend in Nashville in the fall. Until those are settled, I’m reluctant to book any vacation time for myself that’s not dependent on other people’s vacation time.
Consequently, our personal travel this summer has been one trip to Sarasota, and summer’s half over. Are you stuck and frustrated in Atlanta this summer? What’s keeping you here? Do you have a story to share about trying to lasso family members for a get-together? Or how you solved the problem of commitment, or rather, lack of commitment? Please tell all.
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