Vive Le Vive

I am happy to report that my purchase for the second, connecting flight to Paris went through, according to my online banking. I am now just waiting for the vendor to send an email confirmation of the purchase and the flight reservation. To be safe, I am also going to call the airline directly to confirm my reservation and will call my bank, too, to make sure they see it as a completed transaction. I may still have some cleanup on that first fiasco (the reservation for the first flight was still in the airline's system as of last night, though showing as unpaid, and I had to put a stop payment on that charge just to set my mind at ease after being unable to reach the ticket broker by any rational means), but at least I will have something booked for sure.

I try to stay away from tedious and everyday topics on this blog, because I hate reading someone else's blog where they talk about what they had for dinner or something equally mundane, but I also want to cover anything that impacts my writing, and this conference seems really important to my career. It's important to overcome obstacles, and this was a big hurdle. Tedious and boring does not begin to describe sitting on hold on the phone all afternoon with what is apparently some kind of shell company in an effort to get a ticket sale completed, with no response. As a writer, I am not wealthy, and I have to exploit my resources to the fullest, which is why I went for the cheapest fare I could find, and thought I had gotten a great deal from a reputable source. That turned out to be wrong. I actually ended up spending a little less money on the second flight, because it was not a non-stop, and I had not even really looked at those, because I had a bad experience once with almost missing a plane. However, the universe is mysterious and I think that the flight I ended up on is the one I was supposed to take. It stops in Philadelphia for a layover. I am working my way through a very spiritually-oriented book at the moment, and when I got home after arranging my flight, I was reading and immediately came across the Greek word, "Philadelphos." Not a very common word, is it? When I told my friend about the synchronicity, he also reminded me that he recently wrote a short story that takes place in Philadelphia. He had sent it to me, and I read it, but I had forgotten all about it until he said that. I also picked up my mail last night and there was an unsolicited letter that originated in Philadelphia. Patterns like this are tao, flow, whatever you want to call it. It pays not to fight the stream, but just to go along with it. I also saw something online during all of this that said "everything is right on track," so I am okay with this outcome. Looking at the itinerary realistically, too, aside from all metaphysical concerns, a stop on the East Coast after a five-hour flight doesn't seem like such a bad idea before getting back on a plane for another seven hours. I also witnessed 9-11 firsthand from the Staten Island ferry, and the thought of how much fuel is on a plane that flies straight from Los Angeles to Paris without stopping is a little disconcerting to me.