Leaving On A Jet Plane. Hopefully.

On April 23, 2006 I graduated from Pacific Life Bible college (in Surrey, BC) with my Associate of Arts in the Institute of Music Ministry. I spent 2 amazing years there, and when I graduated, I couldn't believe that it was all over already.

Well NOW I can't believe that it's been nearly a year since "it was all over." It's unbelievable how time has passed. I miss my friends there, I miss my teachers, I miss BC in general. I promised myself and everybody else that I would be back for grad the following year.

Well, it's the following year, and grad is only a month away. I still fully intend to be there, and of course, I have even more incentive to make a trip out west, because my boyfriend is there. So here's how vacation planning has been going for the past 3 months.

PLAN A: Since grad is on the 21st and 22nd of April (Saturday and Sunday), I should probably fly out the Thursday before. Flights will be cheaper. I don't want to take too much time off of work, but I still want to make it worth while, so 3 days off of work for a total of 5-days vacation sounded like a good plan.

Work on Thursday, April 19th, fly to Vancouver that evening, be in BC/WA until Tuesday, April 25, and fly home that evening. Be back at work on Wednesday morning. But first I had to talk to the payroll lady at work so she could calculate how many days vacation I will have earned by the time April 20 rolls around. She told me I would have four days! I was pumped! If I had four days, why not use them?

PLAN B: Still fly out to BC on April 19th in the evening, but stay one day longer, and fly home Wed. evening, April 26. Very very nice plan. Even better than the first. But then me and Payroll Lady had another talk, and she told me she had calculated wrong. By the time April 20 rolls around, I won't have 4 days. I won't even have the original 3 days I had planned on taking. Nope. I'm only going to have 2.75 days. Crap.

Well, that's the way it works at my job: you have to earn your hours, and you can't take vacation hours that you haven't earned. It makes sense. So then I thought, well, it sucks if I can't go to grad, but I still want to see Art at some point, so I guess I can wait one more month to see him; we'll survive.

PLAN C: Wait a whole 'nother month, and fly out Thur. evening, May 17, stay for 5 days total (3 days off of work), fly home Tues. evening, May 22. Sounds reasonable. I would have the vacation hours, plus it would be even warmer; I really can't complain.

Guess what: there's another glitch in the plan. See, one of my co-workers is pregnant, and she is due within the first two weeks of June, so she'll be taking Mat leave before that. I know that our company will be hiring for her position within a few weeks, so the month of May will be used to train this new person. The new person will either be in the middle of training, or just starting on their own when I want to leave.

My preggo co-worker knows more about reception than anyone else in the office, and she is the one who fills in for me when I'm away (even if it's just to go to the bathroom). So my leaving directly affects her and whoever will be filling in for her. So if I took a vacation in May, I would be leaving her to train this person for her job, as well as mine, and while she's training, she would still have to do her job (as well as mine). So PLAN C was quickly ix-nayed.

By this time I was getting a bit frustrated and worried. I just want to take a vacation!! So I talked with my supervisor, and she agreed that PLAN C was the worst idea. So she suggested to me that I take my vacation in April like I had intended, take 3 days off of work even though I would only have earned 2.75 days, and she'll bend the system to make it work.

Okay then. So we're back at PLAN A. The decision has been made and approved, so all that's left for me to do is book my flight! I head on over to aircanada.com, and guess what I encounter: another glitch!!! *insert growling here*

The cost of a ticket for Thur. evening, April 19 is sitting at Air Canada's very-reasonable, perfectly-acceptable base price. Awesome. The cost of a ticket for Tues. evening, April 25 is over $150 MORE than that wonderful base price. Add to that $90 worth of extra fees, sur-charges, taxes and what-not, and we have a formula for an insanely expensive flight, and I'm not even flying first class!!!

So then I looked at the airfare for a returning flight the following day: also sitting at that very-reasonable, perfectly-acceptable base price. Let's think about this for a moment: I get to be with my boyfriend longer, AND I save money?? I win!!! Except that means taking 4 days off of work, and I don't have 4 days!! I don't even have 3!

I decided to do something then that I should have done months ago: pray. I prayed about it. I'm still praying about it. I pray about it every time I think about it. Unfortunately my prayer involves giving God an ultimatum, and I also gave Him a time limit, but I think He's okay with that, because He knows I have to figure this out soon.

I have to start arranging people to cover my job while I'm away, and these arrangements should start next week. So this is what I told God: "I am NOT paying that stupidly high price to take the "Supervisor-Approved" vacation. This mission, should You choose to accept it, is to make that returning flight price go down, or You give me favor with my superiors so that they will let me take 4 days off of work. You have till next Monday."

Anybody who is reading this may also join me in this prayer.

It feels good to submit this to God though. I feel like He's building my faith, and that's what I want. The theme of my life lately is Faithful. Learning how God is ALWAYS faithful, He always has been faithful and He's not going to change. Ever.

So I'm going to trust that The Great Creator of the Universe, the All-Mighty, Everlasting God can do anything. Even get me a plane ticket.