[flyershoe]

A few months ago, I made plans to go to Paris on the weekend of Dec. 7th to see my Aunt, and hopefully for her to meet my bf. My aunt lives in Australia, so I don't get to see her very often, and I love to see her because she's like a female version of my dad. Well, a few months ago when we were making plans, I talked to Brian, we picked a weekend, and we went ahead and planned on being in Paris on 12/8 & 9. Of course the way the bid packets are looking for next month, the chance of him getting off that weekend and Christmas are nil. So now it looks like he won't be coming with me, and the last time I talked to my aunt I told her that I would meet up with her even if Brian couldn't come.

Now that I'm on the home stretch of the semester, quite frankly I'm worn out. While working full-time, I've managed to maintain A's in all 3 of my classes, and have only missed 1 class all semester because of something I committed to over the summer. On top of class 2 nights a week, and in addition to the 3~4 hours of homework per week for 2 of the classes, my 3rd class is taken online, which has required an additional 4 or 5 hours of work each week. Add to that the regular stresses of life in general (early/late airport runs, family issues, errands, etc) and trying to find time to spend with my bf… I'm just beat.

Here's how my weeks will look surrounding my trip to Paris:

Tuesday 12/4 - work, classes (til 9) (15 hr day)
Wednesday 12/5 - work, work event (til 10) (16 hour day)
Thursday 12/6 - work, final classes before exams (til 9) (15 hr day)
Friday 12/7 - work, leave at 3 to catch flight to EWR-CDG; (~7 hr day + travel)
Saturday 12/8 - Paris
Sunday 12/9 - Paris
Monday 12/10 - return home (~5pm, just in time for rush hour) (~15 hrs travel)
Tuesday 12/11 - work, final exams (2) (15 hr day)
Wednesday 12/12 - work, employee holiday dinner (15 hr day)
Thursday 12/13 - work, final exam (1) (13 hr day)

So… yeah. I'm about at my breaking point now as it is… I don't want to disappoint my aunt, but at the same time I'm already exhausted. To be honest, I'm not much fun to be around these days. Part of my rationalizing the trip to Paris before exams is that one of my classes is French… I thought what better way to practice!?

It sucks because she just made her reservations, and I don't think they were going to spend much time in Paris because it's too touristy for them… I'm pretty much the only reason they're even going… the rest of the time they were planning on spending in other countries (they're going to be in Europe for about a month).

Do I suck it up and go anyway or do I plead her forgiveness for overestimating myself?