It turned out to be harder than I thought.
If you’ll remember from my last Getting Out the House (GOTH) excursion, I had been experiencing some FOMO from all my cheap trips. So, I opted to spend a little extra cash, only to discover that more money spent didn’t exactly equate to more fun.
If that weren’t enough, it left me with zero dollars to spend on my next trip, as the GOTH rules require that I spend no more than $20 each trip. Spend less, and I can use what’s left over to expand the budget of my following trip. But, if I spend more, I have to subtract it.
Well, I ended up going so far over on my last trip that I was not only left with no money for my next trip, but I have like only $16 to spend on the one after that.
So that’s why this GOTH adventure has to cost me zero dollars.
At first, I was really excited to take this no-spending, day trip on. Afterall, I like a challenge. Plus, there are a lot of free things to do ‘round these parts. I could go to the beach, go to a museum, go for a walk in the park, you know, stuff like that.
The only problem is, you’d be hard pressed to find a lot of places you can get free food, yet food is all around. I mean I don’t think they’re giving out free samples of freeze-dried ice cream at the science museum. Going to the beach, I run the risk of seeing people having picnics, and if I’m lucky enough to be spared of people eating on the sand, there’s a bunch of restaurants I have to pass to get to and from there – not fair.
If I was going to do this, I had to think of something that would be quick, and fun. Get me out of the house (or apartment in my case) and get it over with. And hey, why not, let’s throw challenging in there. I’ve got it – the Culver City Stairs!
Hold up! Wait a minute! What was I thinking?
I remember when I was working in a high rise building in Atlanta and they sprung a surprise fire drill on us, forcing office dwellers to exit the building using the stairs. We were on something like the 7th floor. By the time me and my kitten heels got about four flights down, my legs were jelly, I tell ya, jelly – and I was a good 16 years younger and 35 pounds lighter. Did I mention I was coming DOWN the stairs?
When I moved to New York and had the bright idea to check out a fifth-floor walk-up while searching for a room to rent, I had to rest on the third-floor landing before I braved the last two flights. That too was many years and many pounds ago.
So what, prey tail, in the hell made me think I was going to go up 715 stairs, I think it is?
I blame the YouTube videos I watched where I saw people of all different shapes and sizes scaling those stairs dutifully. I also saw that they had landings where you could step aside and rest for a while before continuing on to the top. There were even videos of people’s entire trip – I think like 15 minutes up and 15 minutes back down. They made it look easy. I thought, not too bad.
Then came the day I was supposed to go, and I couldn’t – more like wouldn’t – get out of bed. I mean it’s one thing to watch it on YouTube and tell yourself, I think I’ll give that a go. But it’s another when the day arrives and you actually have to do it. There was just nothing appealing to me about getting up, getting dressed, driving over there, walking up all those stairs, just to turn around come back down and go home without getting food.
So needless to say, I’ve been putting it off. I’ve actually rescheduled several times and have yet to so much as muster the desire to tackle this trip.
But I’ma go, ya’ll, I’ma go.
And, if one day you see me huffing and puffing on the Culver City Stairs just know this – I’m hungry.
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