Oh, for the love of...

Hi, everybody.  It's the other author of posts on this site.  I thought that I would take the time to share with you the goings on of the past week or so of my life.

Wedding Update:

As you may or may not know by now (if you don't know, welcome to our blog!), Heather accepted my proposal (that's right, I'm Jeff) and we've been planning our wedding for a few months now.  Heather has admittedly done most of the heavy lifting by picking the venue for ceremony and the reception, picking the colors, choosing the photographer and going back and forth with the DJ situation.

We have both chosen the people in our wedding party and have asked them to go steady with us...er, to be a part of our special day.  Almost all of the major roles are filled: wedding party, priest (yes, it is a full-on, Catholic ceremony), candle lighters, ring bearers, readers, singers, piano players.......................(my goodness there are a lot of people involved with a wedding).  Trust me when I say that we feel very blessed to have everyone involved.

Now comes my part and thus the crux of my very bewildering yet entertaining title.  I, for those of you who are wondering if my only job is to show up and look pretty on the day of the wedding (for those of you laughing and thinking to yourself that it is a hard enough job for me to do that, you're very funny), do have my tasks.  My tasks are all the stuff that is perishable.  Food.  Flowers.  Cake.  Treats for guests.  Slush fund.  The honeymoon...

Nobody told me that booking the honeymoon would be so hard.  First, there are questions that you need to ask yourself.  What type of honeymoon defines our love?  Where to go?  Where to stay?  What do we eat when we get there?  What do we do (no jokes, seriously)?  So I says to my self, I says, "Self, you know you should have a travel agent book all this stuff for you.  That their job.  That is what they are trained and live to do.  They are the experts.  They have the connections.  They can get you the deals.  They know where would be best to go during November-December that would beat the tourists (if there are any left).  Lets look some up.  Certainly, in today's economic climate, somebody will want my business."

So I set about calling a travel agency that my mom and step-dad use for personal travel.  I won't give out names, but they are in St. Louis and they are called the Travel Desk.  Oops!  I lied!

So I call these people starting last Wednesday.  I state my case and I ask for the contact that my mom gave me and was informed that she was not working that day.  No big deal.  I'll call back when she is in the office.  I'm told that she will be in Thursday.  I call the next day.  Same answer but am now told that there is another person who would be suited for the task of booking a honeymoon.  I'm told she will call me back on Friday.  Cool.  I'm still happy and I have about a zillion other things to do at work anyway.  Friday comes with no call.  No problem.  It's the weekend and there is stuff to do.

Monday, I call to see if the lady I was referred to is available.  She is not.  She is off on Mondays.  Well, apparently this lady must own the place because she was not in on Tuesday when I called (I'm no longer waiting for them to call me, you see).  Nor was she in on Wednesday when I was told that she would be (there was a bit of a snow storm, so maybe the office was closed).

So that brings us to today.  I called.  A lady answered.  I asked for the other lady.  She was not in today.  I was told that I was first to call tomorrow...  Now, for those of you who know me pretty well, I'm normally very level-headed.  True, I can get a bit steamed or passionate about things, but few things truly make me mad.  Well, I can tell you that phone tag is one of them.  After so long, I won't play anymore.  This game has gone on too long.

I want to go some place tropical for our honeymoon.  I want to start our lives together on a warm, sunny, inspiring note.  I want to make reservations as soon as is possible.  I want for somebody at this travel agency to realize that I am a customer who is beating down their door to throw business their way.  For the love of Pete, how hard is this point to get across?

Have any of you had any experiences like this with honeymoons, vacations or any other arrangements in general?

Well, now that my blood pressure is up and I need to go to bed, I will bid you all a fond farewell.  Hope your lives are going well and that you are staying warm.