Let’s go over these plans once more. Previous options have included:

• Taking two weeks off and doing an extended road trip, visiting friends and family in Rockford, Chicago, Champaign, and Cleveland, while the cats are visited by a nice pet sitter OR
• Shane flies to Cleveland, I drive there to pick him up a couple of days later and continue on to Rockford, Chicago, and Champaign, ending up back home around the end, while the cats are visited by a nice pet sitter OR
• Shane flies to Cleveland, spends a couple of days, then continues on to Chicago. I fly into Chicago, and we both take the bus out to Rockford for 2-3 days. The cats are boarded so that Sid can get the attention she needs to get better.

Instead Shane just spent $120 for a one way flight from Akron to DC, putting him in town the evening of the 24th. I fly out of DC on the 24th at around the same time Shane gets back, returning on the 27th for a low low price of $309ish, offset by $178 my travel voucher from the summer. No boarding or pet sitting is necessary because it’s not available, and because in the last 12 hours airfare got outrageously expensive.

So instead of a nice trip together, we get rushed and stressful trips apart. Instead of spending Christmas together with my family, we’ll be lucky to pass each other in the airport. I’m so tired and stressed out by all of this, and I just want the effing holidays to be over and life to go back to not-extremely-expensive.

On the bright side, Sid ate a bunch of treats and some wet food this morning, and showed some interest in her brother and the basket of toys. Fingers and toes crossed!