To go, or not to go....that...is no longer the question

for many ex-pats, this is the time of year that we start scouring the papers and combing through the internet sites to find reasonable flights, waiting 'on hold' for what seems like forever while some person who may or may even be able to understand what it is that we want, searches

 to find the answers.

yes, my friends,

it's almost the summer holiday.

it's time to think about going to our respective countries for the break.

when i was single, it really wasn't that big of a deal.

call an agency..get the flight..."i really don't care if i  go through seattle, los angeles, chicago....just get my ass home.... however"!

deposit the cash (because at that time, no credit cards and let's face it, tickets were crazy cheap!).

get to the airport in time for the flight..."any seat will do as long as it is on the aisle, thank you very much"...

get some alcohol as soon as we were in the air and

boom baby. i'm on my way home.

having kids put a whole 'nuther twist to this.

extra suitcases...bigger carry-ons..."please, give me time to get to the next flight with a little bit of time to spare, thank you very much".

plus they added to the final cost of the whole trip....and then some.

but we did it. 

it was a sacrifice made to be able to spend some much-needed time with  family and friends. 

but now...thanks to the rising cost of oil, they have now added a pretty hefty surcharge to each ticket purchased....i've checked a couple of places and some places are charging 

about $500 extra (give or take a few dollars)

for. each. ticket.

that's $1500....just for the surcharge.

i've checked a couple of places and tickets to denver run anywhere from

$1,300-$3,000....depending on how many layovers i'm willing to make.

let's face it, when it takes about 26 hours, from door to door, to get to my mom's house, any extra layovers can really make a girl craaaaanky.

let's say that i can scrounge together the money to buy the tickets...that's only part of what i have to do, really.  even though i'm gone for 3 or 4 weeks (which is the amount of time i like to be there), i've still got bills coming in here that have to be paid.  then....keeping in mind that i am not a salaried kind of teacher (i'm basically self-employed) and most classes pay at
end of the month...i wouldn't get very much money until the end of september.
and that right there.....is one of the main causes of stress when i go to the states...knowing that when i come back to japan, i'm faced with that as soon as we land. 
oh, i can have a fun time but..still..there is that dark cloud hanging over every patio time and restaurant outing while i'm there.
so....making the decision to postpone coming "home" for another year really wasn't one that took too terribly much time to make.
man.
this making adult decisions sucks sometimes.
but really....

thanks to the internet, my blogging friends and...that social networking place i love so much,
i'm not so far away...not really.

and next year?
just try and stop me!