A ticket and a hiccup

A ticket and a hiccup - as is usual in all things, purchasing a ticket once I had decided that the deal of a lifetime wasn't coming my way had a little complication and then other prospective complications reared their ugly heads ...

So I finally decided that Alitalia non-stop might not be the cheapest ticket, but it would be less crazy than the alternatives. I couldn't get the flight through Paris that left Rome in the early afternoon, but otherwise, OK. So I go transfer money from Big Mega Bank that bought out smaller Mega Bank which bought my original bank First Atlanta many years ago. Moved the money from savings into checking and tried to buy the ticket. Blam. Transaction refused. I had to call the bank (the same bank whose website I had just used to move EXACTLY the amount of the transaction I was trying to perform) to get them to release the money. (Then, of course, it took 5 days to actually post, but that's a different story).

So I ordered the ticket, printed the itinerary, emailed the landlord and then came home to get a jury summons for the Thursday before my Tuesday departure.

I freaked. I have been called for jury duty at least 5 times in the last 2 decades. I am never selected for a jury because a> I used to work in the news business and b> I have also been the victim of a violent crime. Prosecutors think I'm too liberal because of a> and defense attorneys fear b>. So there’s no chance I would be seated on a criminal case, but the week following the Thursday of my call happened to have (because I'm the sort who checks these things) only 2 courts hearing criminal cases and FIVE hearing civil cases. I could not risk getting put on a civil case jury. I was tempted to claim I never received the summons, but finally took a deep breath and asked for a deferral and since I'd never asked for one before, I'm free until March - when the court calendar is weighted the other way toward criminal court - and the county has a one day or one trial rule so the odds are that I will not waste more than one day on the farce.

One good thing to come out of my foray onto Big Mega Bank's website is that I was reminded that I have about 7K in reward points from their now-defunct debit card reward system and it looks as though there are a number of things in Rome that I can book with those points.

So now it's a matter of saving pennies and making my lists. I'm so glad Charlie will be staying with Mar and her bunch - he spent the afternoon there yesterday and was one very very tired pup last night - and a tired dog is a GOOD dog.

37 days from now I will be in an airplane about a third of the way across the Atlantic.