This weekend, my major focus was on my San Francisco trip. Planning a trip is so much work. It’s fun work, but it can also be frustrating work because I have to do so much research beforehand to ensure I have a good time while I’m there. And that’s just the thing – I can never really be sure that I will have a good time no matter how much planning I do. What’s more, things never go completely according to plan. There will be something that I wanted to get to that I won’t get to. A time that I want to start my day that ends up being so much later. Still, I like to stick to the foundation of researching beforehand just so…I don’t know…so I can feel like I have some semblance of control. So that I will kinda know what I’m doing and know where I’m going, especially since I’m traveling alone. I don’t know, I just want to be prepared. But I think this time I’m going to leave some room for some spontaneity. I don’t have to have everything figured out before I get there. I can trust that if I figure out some of it, I will be able to find my way for the rest of it.
But obviously the hotel, is not one of those things I can do that with – especially since I have a budget. So it’s imperative that I find the perfect place to lodge.
I’ve already booked two hotels. I’m going to end up cancelling one or both of them because I’m still looking for hotels, it’s just I want to lock in a good deal while it’s still a good deal just in case. Of the two hotels I’ve reserved so far ( I haven’t paid for them, just reserved them and I’ll pay for it when I get there if I choose one of these) one – the first one I reserved—I’ve come to learn is in, or very close to a seedy, part of town. A part of town teeming with homeless and – based on a review I read – people vomiting in the street, and even a drug deal going down. Um, what in the entire fuck?
I mean this hotel is not cheap – it’s not expensive, but it’s crazy expensive for me. I don’t want to pay that kind of money to see homeless people everywhere, I see enough of them at home. I don’t need to go on vacation and see them too. Though with the cost of living in San Francisco, it’s not only hard not to see them, it’s hard not to be them. Cost of living is far outpacing income in these California streets. But anyway, the homeless problem was giving me second thoughts about that hotel.
I used Google to go up and down the streets surrounding the second hotel I booked – it looked so clean and pristine, and light and bright right outside the hotel and in the area. I checked Tripadvisor reviews as I always do before booking a hotel, and people were saying how safe the neighborhood is – a really big plus. But as I continued to virtually ease on down the roads, there was nothing there in the immediate vicinity. The area was largely residential and it looked boring. There was like a 10 minute walk to shops and restaurants – anything lively. I mean I guess it’s not that bad, but I want to step right out of my hotel and into the action. So afterwhile, the second hotel gave me pause, and I began to search for another.
Yes, that’s right, I booked a third hotel.
Today, not to long ago as a matter of fact, I found one. The hotel is right in the thick of it. Not grungy looking like the neighborhood of the first hotel, not as pristine and the neighborhood of the second hotel, but right in between. What’s more, there’s also public transportation right outside of the hotel. I love taking public transportation in foreign cities. I realize San Francisco is in America and more specifically California which is my home state. But ya girl has never been that far past the Mason-Dixon – you know, if the Mason-Dixon were in California, and SF looks so different, it might as well be in England for all I’ll know the difference.
And what I’m realizing is that, even when planning this trip, I have this thing about perfectionism. I want this trip to be perfect, and I’m literally spending hours on end, trying to make it perfect. Once it’s all said and done, I will have spent more hours trying to perfect this trip that than I will spend on the trip itself. Let that sink in – I’m so talking to myself right now.
So maybe it’s time that I just trust myself. Trust myself that no matter where I stay or what happens, I can make it work. That no matter where I stay or what happens, I can have a good time. That I need to let go and let God even in my trip-planning. I will enjoy my hotel. I will enjoy my time in San Francisco, Sacramento and Fairfield. I will enjoy life, because no matter what happens…that was a really nice build up but I got nothing.
Back to planning.
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