Remember when, if you made an airline reservation and then couldn't make it for the trip, you could sell your plane tickets to someone else? And they could use them, without bringing out the whole swat team? It was no big deal. I miss those days.

Today I realized that the tickets I bought for a trip we're making a week from today were for 8:50 pm, rather than 8:50 am, as I'd intended to buy them for. I felt like an idiot! It doesn't work for us to travel later, as we already have to be late.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, this weekend is the biggest weekend for our church in, well, a hundred years! Really! We're celebrating our centennial at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Portland, Oregon. That's a lot of years, and it's a big deal! We have a full weekend ahead of us. The choir has been practicing extra hard since January. My dear husband has been going, going, going. And you know, when he's busy, I'm busy. It all starts on Friday evening, when both the Archbishop and the Metropolitan (two types of bishops) arrive, and we'll kick off the weekend with a Glendi (big Greek dance party) and the opening of the new cultural center. Saturday we have an ecumenical doxology service, then a youth ralley where both bishops will be with the kids at Camp Angelos, and then the big banquet, celebrating these 100 years and toasting to the next 100. On Sunday we'll have the big church service, with the two bishops and 9 other clergy members. The choir has been working on music for that Sunday--some that's old (as in the old Desby music that used to be used in all the churches) and some that's new (some pieces were commissioned just for our choir!). It's all very exciting! In the afternoon and evening there will be a couple of events that are not open the public but Paul and I will be attending.

And after this is all over, there is a clergy couples retreat in Monterey. I can't think of a time when we'll need it more, but I wish we didn't have to miss the beginning of it, as it starts on Sunday, and there's no way we could have made it then!

So, that's where the plane tickets came in. I wanted to leave as early as possible on Monday morning, but not so early that poor Paul would have to miss his beauty sleep after this big weekend. So I scheduled our flight for 8:50. I thought it was am, but it was pm. And it cost more to change it than it did to just buy one-way tickets on another carrier. So, I am $220 poorer and reminding myself to *look at the details, dummy!*

But next week at this time, we'll have celebrated our brains out and we'll be relaxing on the beach in California. Ah, life is good.