Still pondering Midwest FurFest
Whether I'll be able to go to MFF this year has been a case of "Yes-No-Maybe-No-Yes-No-Maybe-Yes-No-Definite No-But Actually Maybe-Still Don't Know-But Perhaps I Still Could Myself Anyway"
Why all of this? Let me explain...
- Back in 2012, I originally planned to make MFF this year [YES]
- Then at the end of 2012, my brother dropped a bombshell on us all saying that he was going to get married, and the date was going to be in December 2013. In order to make that, I had to move vacation time around, and that meant sacrificing MFF. [NO] And that was that... or so I thought.
- Then, a few weeks ago, I was told about a customer out in Toledo, OH, that wanted to do a migration, and was I interested in going out for that - the week of MFF. This meant that I could possibly fly back via Chicago and take in the convention on the way. [MAYBE]
- But, on bringing this idea to my manager, he didn't want me away because $principal_developer was also away and we had to have one of us here to support another support person going to do a big customer migration in New York. [NO]
- However, it seemed that the customer in Toledo was willing to have one person come out the first week (since that week would be mostly training) and then another come out the second week for the actual migration. I was only blacked-out for the first week, so things were back on again. [YES]
- Yet, it didn't completely look like the customer in Toledo would manage to keep their target for this week. [MAYBE]
- But, they definitely came back later and said they were committed to trying for it. [YES]
- And then yesterday, I found out that they were definitely not going to make it after all. [NO]
- Today, they said they would have to push back until December. [HELL, NO]
- Wait for the amazing twist... the customer in New York (of which I was meant to go there last week, but didn't) still doesn't have a contract signed, and might have to push things back another week... which would be the week of MFF. [MAYBE]
- Yet on the call today, they said they can't do it that week because even though we would be migrating their stuff on Monday night -> Tuesday, they start the Thanksgiving blackout period on the Thursday. [NO]
- But on the same call we suggest the migration on Sunday night -> Monday, giving them an extra day to deal with issues. Well, they didn't say no to that suggestion, but didn't say yes either. [MAYBE]
Meanwhile, I started looking around online to see if I can get to Chicago using any of the frequent flier miles that I have. Turns out that yes, I could. If I flew out of Seattle, I could leave early Friday morning and get there around 2pm or if I left around 1pm on Thursday I could get a flight out at 6pm to get in at midnight.
I need two days of vacation to do this. I have one free already (gained for working on Canadian Thanksgiving) and I could get one for working on Remembrance Day this Monday, since no-one has signed up for it.
Downsides to doing it by myself is that it'll cost me more than piggybacking off work; cost of gas and parking, as well as the taxes for the ticket and checked bag fees. I should be trying to save money but... this has been too much off-again-on-again that I'm really tempted to make it on-again by myself.