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April 23, 2003
Vacation
By QBlog in
I missed my sister's high school graduation last year because of Quixtar. Well, not really because of Quixtar. Here's the story.
We (my wife and kids) have always travelled a lot and spent a lot of money visiting friends and family. At the beginning of 2002 we decided that we would not take any trips that year to save money and get caught up on our bills. We'd still go to the cabin with relatives in July but that was very cheap in comparison to all the other trips we usually took.
As a result, we decided to skip my little sister's high school graduation. I regret that now but we made a decision and told her that we just couldn't afford it this year. She said she understood and that was the end of the story... or was it?
Well, in 2002, the year we weren't going to take any expensive trips, we all went to Ft. Worth to a Qbiz function (affiliated with Quixtar). Then my wife went to Chicago a couple of times, Florida once (or maybe twice) and somewhere else I think. I really can't keep track. None of the trips were cheap. Some were cheaper than others but none of them were easy on the pocketbook. Then, my other sister got married. Of course I couldn't miss that but it was an unexpected expense (we found out after we decided to avoid travel) and we swallowed hard (and spent a lot) and made the trip to DC for the wedding.
If someone else had gotten married I am not sure what we would have done. My point is, we didn't go on a single (except for the inexpensive family reunion at the cabin) planned family vacation at all last year. However, at least one of us went on several "super important" trips to Quixtar related conferences. These were always explained away as a "business expense" but the money actually came from our checking account.
Ok, mainly I'm just lamenting the fact that we didn't have some time to get away and decompress last year. I don't blame anyone but I just reflect on the reality and wonder if all those trips to functions are really worth the effort, time and expense to anyone, not just us. Somehow I doubt it but what do I know? I'm just a Quixtar loser.