Fucking Around Part 2

Thank goodness payday came a bit early this week, because otherwise I don’t think I would have managed it. For the past month, I’ve been playing a very delicate game of figuring out how to buy plane tickets, move into and furnish a new apartment, and pay rent without incurring any overdraft fees. The entire orchestration is simply too complex to get into here, not because I’m a genius or anything, but distinctly because I’m that bad with numbers. There have been times where, as the youths say, the math wasn’t mathing, and I’m very fortunate that I have parents who were willing to tip the scales in my favor when I fell flat on my face trying to make it work on my own. 

The plane itinerary is a rather delicate operation, and I couldn’t budget for checked bags or price drop protection. I may very well be stuck in a middle seat for a transatlantic flight. If anything gets delayed or cancelled, as what happened in the UK last week, the entire dance falls apart, and I will join the multitude of travelers who’ve been financially, geographically, and temporally fucked in the ass by airline companies. But right now all of that seems like a darling kind of adventure that will be hilarious to reminisce on at cocktail parties years down the line. And the cherry on top is that this somehow all came together in a feverish 2 hours of Expedia searching just before the prices all jumped. 

I am so fucking excited. And now that I have an itinerary at all, I feel like I can articulate some of the concrete hopes for what I want to get out of it. I’ll be spending a few days in Athens for sightseeing the classics and a couple of day trips to Corinth to see my great great (great?) Grandparents home and to Meteora to visit the monasteries (no relation). Then, it’ll be off to Cephalonia to muck out stalls and hop back in the saddle again. 

But ultimately, it’s the opportunity to work on a writing project while visiting the place that inspired that feels so electrifying right now. For those who don’t know, for my undergraduate honors thesis, I drafted an epic space opera that’s some triangulation of Titus Andronicus, The Boys, and Ancient Greek mythology. Admittedly, I don’t much remember the feedback I got during my defense because of the adrenaline rush, but I’m banking on the fact that it’s seeped deep into my writerly subconscious, and that it will gently guide me the rest of the way. *Imagine me jumping up and down and squealing in glee* Scouting locations! Eating food! Petting the alleycats! Talking to people! Lending my writing the patina of experience! 

I fly out on Halloween. It’s officially two months away. More to come. 

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