Booking Vacations

Wifey and I haven't been away in a long while. We're headed out of town later this week -- 3 nights in NYC, and 4 in Vermont. I just checked the foliage report, and Stowe ought to be in peak form for us. Wifey usually books the trips, as she is far more facile with computers than I am. But this time I took control -- with the helpful suggestions of Dr. Eric. For NYC, we decided on a Kimpton Hotel -- one called the Muse, in MidTown. Last October, when I went to Chicago for the Canes game, Eric, Dana, and I stayed in a Kimpton, and were way impressed. I booked using something called hotels.com, as they promised discounts. I pre paid for the room. Last week, Dana, ever the observant traveler, learned that the room price had come down $50 per night. She cancelled her reservations, and re booked -- for a $150 savings. I tried to do the same and was kindly reminded by the Kimpton folks that I used an outside service. So I called Rooms.com, and asked them for some help. "Matt" was my agent, and by his accent I knew his real name was likely Mattasarthyaramadam. He told me there was nothing to do, so I asked for his supervisor. He was "Skip," short for Skipathananananaian. Skip was very polite, and told me again that I had pre paid. I told him I knew that, but if they ever wanted me to use their company again, they would give me some kind of credit. Skip essentially told me to go Kama Sutra myself. So you live and learn, I figure. All future bookings will be directly WITH the hotel and airlines. This way at least there's a chance, if a price reduction comes along. I just checked the NYC and Vermont weather. Looks like NY has high in the 70s, and lows in the 60s. Great sleeping weather, as my Dad used to say. Vermont looks to be dipping into the 50s at night. Even better sleeping weather. Wifey reminded me that years ago, as I sat on a rooftop terrace in Montreal, I had an epiphany about my career. I had been way stressed about several cases my partner Paul and I were handling -- and for good reason. They both involved burned children -- one of the clients had also lost a child to a fire. I decided then and there to extract myself from the profession, at least partly. Paul has continued to work hard at it -- probably 60 -70 hours per week. I feel like I'm due another epiphany. Maybe this one will occur in the Vermont woods. We'll see. At least it will be cooler...