my love/hate relationship with traveling

So while I love traveling I really actually dislike the getting there part. Here are a few reasons why:

1) Manhandling luggage. I know it's my own fault for not being a very light packer, but I can't help it, I'm still learning. I hate dragging luggage around: into the car, out of the car, up to the check in desk, onto the scale, oops! too heavy, back off the scale, take stuff out, onto the scale again. Then the carry on is too heavy because of all the stuff you've crammed in at check in. (I swear I weighed my bags three times and they were right on target. I think they rig those wretched scales.) So now the carry on is heavy and you've gotta wheel it around the airport with your purse/laptop case either bruising your shoulder or breaking your wrists as it rides on top of the wheeled bag. (When you finally arrive at your destination to discover that your bags made a side trip to NY you're actually rather relived because it means they will be hand delivered to you instead of you having to drag them around the airport, on and off a bus, and then into and out of a car.)

2) Accidents. When you've finally gotten settled with your luggage and you decide you deserve your favorite drink at Starbucks (a Venti Sweetened Passion Tea Lemonade) which you won't be able to have for the foreseeable future because they don't make it in the UK what do you go and do, after only having drank about 1/4 of it, but spill it all over the carpet by the internet station. Oh well, at least it didn't land on any one's bag.

4) Trying to sleep on the airplane. Number one the seat is hardly ever comfortable. Number two there is always too much activity to get more than a couple hours anyway. Number three, the elderly gentleman sitting next to you, while lovely, is quite fidgety, keeps dropping his pillow, and doesn't seem to mind getting into your personal space. So you just decide to watch movies instead and give yourself permission to sleep as much as you want when you get home.

5) (This comes under the love part... I think) When you go through passport control in Dublin the passport control officer, if a man, will most likely assume that the reason you've been to Ireland so many times is because you have a boyfriend here.

6) Trying to pay with a credit card. For some reason while I've been gone lots of place have stopped accepting payment by card. This is fine except when the only noticeable cash point at the airport is out of order...

7) International telephones... My US phone, while stocked up with plenty of leftover credit, refuses to work here which leaves me unable to contact my housemates letting them know what time I need to be picked up. So I try my UK phone only to discover that it's been cancelled due to disuse. Great. So I find a cash point that works and take a taxi to the house. No one is home. But now I have change from paying the cab and can walk up the street to use a pay phone. Where are these missing housemates? In town waiting for me. Oh dear.

I guess that's all....

Oh, one thing more not exactly related to traveling: I am not immune to catcalls or blatant stares, etc. while walking down the street. My favorite so far was yesterday when I was walking home from town a guy rolled down his window and just stuck his arm out with a thumbs up. (Girls probably aren't really supposed to talk about this for many different and complicated "polite" reasons, but I don't care.) I thought that was pretty funny.