(no subject)

I'm stingy with my time off.

I get a certain amount every year; of course, those of us who have salaried, ore even hourly, jobs usually do. In my case it's 23 days a year. Not a lot, but it could be worse. And I move to 26 next year. Anyway, my time off is very precious to me. Money is a good thing, and benefits like insurance are important too, of course. But time is the one thing that you can never get back once it's gone. I'd prefer to spend as much of it as possible away from my job and doing something wonderful enough to justify expenditure of my limited time off.

Andrea and I looked at scheduling last night for the next couple of months. I just requested (and got approved for) July 24th and August 21st. We'll leave for a trip to the UP on the 23rd of this month, and a trip to Detroit on the 21st of the next. That leaves me with 16 and a half days.

For a while, barton_fender has been planning a trip to New York, along with akreaveter, my other brother No-LJ-James (and girlfriend), and possibly farm_cat even. With No-LJ moving to Lansing for law school, it might be the last time for a year or more I get to spend a bunch of time with him.

We'd be staying at a hostel fairly cheaply, so I'm not too worried about cost (though I am a little bit). We'd be gone from a Monday night through the next Monday. I'd probably eat as dirt-cheap as possible. I may rent a camera lens to take with though, which I'm more than happy to spend a little money on. It would be a good opportunity to try out the 10-22 I've been eying. (I guess this says something about my priorities when it comes to money. Food is temporary; why spend lots of money on it?)

I've pretty much decided I'm going to go (assuming I can get those dates approved). But I keep having niggling doubts about it somehow not working out. Like, it'll turn out to not be interesting, or cost too much, or something stupid like that. Or what if the experience there isn't that different than one I could get by staying in Chicago? Plus, it's over the dates as the LAFF waterpark trip. I don't know when I'll get another chance to see New York. I should go. Tell me so, would you?

And now for something completely different

This is is a tall, narrow library behind a science lab in an abandoned high school in Northwest Indiana.

It's also very much what I want my library at home to look like some day, except even more so. I mean, check out that rolling ladder on a runner! Does that not just scream 'I am a book slut!'? Want.