Brief Detour...

I generally hate when plans change. Not small plans, mind you. I'm not going to get my panties in a bunch over dinner plans changing. I'm talking big, made 8 months ago, involves a lot of travel-style plans. It's not that I'm inflexible, because for the most part I think I'm a pretty flexible person. But, the whole point of making plans 6-8 months out is so that everything is settled and we (read: I) don't have to rush around at the last minute trying to finalize anything. You also tend to get better prices on hotels, airfare, etc when you plan your trip ahead of time.

So, imagine my dismay when I find out that Trina's mother is requesting a change to our travel plans, less than one week prior to the travel. Original plan was this:

Wed: M leaves for IL
Thurs: M busies herself with wedding related duties, R leaves for IL
Fri: M & R attend Wedding in IL
Sat: M & R drive to WI to pick up Trina for the summer.

This plan was set months and months ago. We had the hotel room in IL until Saturday anway, so we could leave Sat. morning and meet them in WI for the pick-up. It works out perfectly.

So, Trina's mom calls and requests that we meet on Sunday instead because she'd prefer to go to her friend's wedding on Saturday. I'll have to admit my first thought was complete irritation. It seems that every time we have Trina she calls at some point to change something. Last visit: she wanted us to bring Trina back 2 days early so she could stay in a hotel with her in the UP. My next thought: Why is she telling us this now?!? Wouldn't she have known months ago about an impending wedding conveniently slated for our pre-planned pick-up/drop-off? But, I digress.

Ryan and I agreed that we'd try to accomodate the request. But, I truly don't think she even realizes how this *one* day severely messes up the plans. First, we now have to pay for another night in a hotel. Second, we have to waste an entire day doing absolutely nothing productive. Third, we won't get home until late Sunday night, so all of my plans to make life "smooth" will no longer happen because now I can't run any of the errands I planned on Sunday.

BUT...I'm going to try to enjoy this little detour from plans. Ryan and I decided that we'd get a hotel up on Wisconsin and spend Saturday and Sunday morning hanging around in a "new" city. First, we looked into hotels in The Dells. That idea got scrapped when we saw what was available for our dates: super crazy expensive resorts or creepy roach motels. Then we thought about Eau Claire, but if we went that far into WI, our drive back to MI would be 10 hours. Pass. Mauston? No decent hotels available. I would have loved to stay the night in Lake Geneva, but that's too far for Trina's mom to drive. So, we ended up settling on Madison. It's truly the 1/2 point between our homes anyway. It's not a "new" city to me, but it is to Ryan. So, I'm going to try to make the best of it while it's happening, and deal with the frenzy when we get home.

I leave tomorrow for Miss J's wedding, so I likely won't have any time to blog until sometime next week. XOXO. Melanie Out.