preparations

my parents, sister, and i all have plane tickets over to edinburgh for our family vacation in august, so the next step is for me to book places for us to stay.  booking bed & breakfasts in scotland is um, a little different from booking a hotel in the united states.  it involves emailing the people who own the b&b, finding out if there is availability and what the price is, trying to sound legit by saying 6 august instead of august 6, and then emailing them your credit card number so they can hold your rooms.  it involves trusting these people not to steal your credit card number, and i'm going into it totally trusting them.  let this not come back to bite me.

i've booked us a cute place to stay in edinburgh and am emailing with places in inverness.  it's kind of fun - reaching out to actual scottish people who run these small businesses out of their homes.  i like it.  i read an article recently (though i can't find it now) that said that people don't see a rise in their happiness level because of a vacation (as in, you're not happier when you come back as opposed to when you left) - they see a rise in their happiness level from PLANNING a vacation.  the article is right - planning this vacation is SO MUCH FUN.  (does that sound sarcastic?  i don't mean for it to.  i'm a planner, so right now i'm totally in my element.)