Dear Mr President:

Please make Thanksgiving the same day every year. KTHANXBAI.

Let me just start by saying that I'm a very organized and meticulous person. My checkbook is balanced down to the cent. I have ritualistic cleaning habits...yeah...I'd say I'm a little OCD.

With the holiday season fast-approaching, I found myself checking ticket prices to Pennsylvania every day. It's not easy being so far away from my family. Low and behold, I found a sweet deal to travel for Thanksgiving. Ib and I talked it over and once we confirmed available vacation days at work, I booked our flights.

Positively thrilled, I went into work yesterday and turned in my vacation request form. Pat, our HR lady, saved the day when she inadvertently discovered I planned to celebrate Thanksgiving a week earlier than everyone else this year. Ooops.


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Well, that explained the great price! I ran to my desk and dialed American Airlines. (You're whistling now, aren't you?)

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We've got a sordid history, American and me. My first experience with them led to a strongly-worded letter vowing that I'd never fly with them again. But because I'm a sucker for a bargain, I gave them a second chance. And a third. And they've pretty much redeemed themselves. I think we're even now.

ONLY

So anyway, I held my breath as I explained to the customer service rep that I'm a complete moron and obviously don't know anything about calendars or US holidays. She explained that, unfortunately, I had purchased non-refundable tickets. We could change our dates of travel, at the price of $150 per person. BUT...since I'd booked less than 24 hours earlier, she could go ahead and waive those fees. WHEW! So after punching some numbers and checking (and RE-CHECKING) some dates and talking to Ib, we ended up with flights for Christmas instead.

HAD A BRAIN...