Indecision and Costco

I'm wondering if I should cancel my trip.

I don't want to cancel my trip. I want to go where it's warm. I want to luxuriate in an incredible hotel, walk on the beach and take photography tours. But if I do all this, I want to enjoy it.

Although I am feeling quite a bit better today, I'm not 100%. I'm concerned that the trip I have planned will require too much energy, and I'll end up miserable. Considering that I can only afford one real trip a year - and, oh, I can't even really afford that one - I want it to be good. If I postpone a few months, I should be fully recovered from the surgery, my anemia should be under control and I would have enough energy to do whatever I want.

But dammit, I don't want to stay home.

The hotel I'm booked into is awesome. It has a king sized feather bed, amazing service by people who pride themselves on making it so that you can't tell that they're there, breakfast in bed, fresh flowers in the room, and milk & cookies at night.

As I said, it's awesome. There's a good chance that I might spend a whole day or two in that room, luxuriating in how the other half live. But I don't want to be stuck there.

It's a long way to fly, and a lot of money to spend to be miserable.

I've got travel insurance, so the flight's covered. I haven't booked the photography tour, but I need to do that soon or it'll be sold out. And I'm worried about the pet sitter. To a non-animal lover, this may not make sense; but I've managed to book an awesome pet sitter. Somebody who I trust, and feel comfortable leaving her with my crew while I'm away. She's excellent, and I booked her months ago for her busiest time of year. If I cancel I'm worried that she'll lose money because of me. Some might say that if she's that good, she shouldn't have trouble finding another job - but I'd like to hope that anybody who plans to be away over Christmas would already have made arrangements for their pets. And if I cancel on her now, she may never agree to work for me again.

I need to make up my mind soon.

Assuming that I am going to go on my trip, I have made some purchases in preparation. I found a great deal on a Netbook a few weeks ago, and ordered it online. It arrived earlier in the week, and so far the only downfall that I can find is that it doesn't read compact flash cards, which I use in my camera. So, now I have to convert to SD memory cards, which my camera also can use.
Oh, and the Netbook also led to an overwhelming desire for wireless Internet at home.

Off to Costco, I went.

Costco needs to be used in extreme moderation, in my world. I find it too tempting to snap things up because they are little less expensive than they normally are. Except, I'm not really saving anything, because I wouldn't have otherwise bought these things!

Rule #1 at Costco: Don't use a cart. If you can't carry everything out, you've got too much.
This rule is tried and true, and has worked for me for many years. Having this rule is the only way that I can justify having a Costco card.

I broke Rule #1.

I got a cart.
I grabbed the wireless router, and the SD card. I then found some measuring cups that were "only" $12. I went into the meat section, and bought enough roasts that I'm not going to have to shop for meat until year 2015. (Anybody want to come over for roast beef this weekend? I'm going to try Crazy Aunt Purl's Perfect Pot Roast recipe.) Then I picked up a couple of sweaters, a few years' worth of vitamins and a whole bunch of other crap that I neither need nor can I recall.

$300, I spent today.
And I was going just going to whip in and grab the router and the memory card.
HAH. I need a Costco intervention.