Decision Angst

I don't think I could have botched up this vacation week any more if I'd consciously tried.

Now I have some tough decisions to make.

I did find a dog-sitter, as I mentioned. And spent the majority of this week feverishly trying to get ready for Pennsic. But a gnat inserted itself in the pudding about Monday, which didn't get resolved until yesterday, and resolved poorly.

Originally my plan was to have her watch Tyler from Saturday morning-ish to Friday night-ish, giving me 6 1/2 days at Pennsic. But when we finally finalized plans, somehow that time frame shrank to Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon - a mere four whole days, with Sunday night (which I don't count for much as I'd just be arriving) and Friday morning (which I count for even less, as I'd be preparing to go home). And all this was going to cost me a small fortune, between site fee and paying said dog-sitter.

To be fair, this isn't really her fault. I suggested the time frame (what I was thinking I can't even begin to tell you; I have no freaking clue). But when I realized that I'd seriously shortchanged myself on time, and asked her about going back to the original plan, she was no longer available.

Then the dilemma set in. Do I really want to pay this much money for this short of an amount of time at Pennsic? Or do I want to say the hell with it, and cancel the dog-sitter, and just daytrip.

Adding to the mix of indecision, it's been raining off an on for the last week, and I found out today that Pennsic is slowly turning into a quagmire, as so often happens in rainy years. It's only the end of the first week, and the stories go that the camps down past the lake are flooding out, and they've had to close parts of the parking lot.

Knowing that new piece of news, would canceling the dogsitter and daytripping really be that bad a thing? Because I detest, detest with a passion, wet Pennsics. I hate camping in the wet. After a week of it, everything is damp - including bedding - even if it hasn't been subject to direct flood. It's just all the wet in the air that gets to it. And I cannot, cannot, not even sleep in damp bedding. I have gone home from Pennsic early before because of this much rain.

And, it's supposed to rain at least some part of about 4 of the next 7 days. More rain.

So now there's a new dilemma. Do I cancel the dogsitter, daytrip on days it's not raining, and make the best of it?

Or do I keep the dogsitter on, and go absolutely nuts milking the positively most out of my 4 days and 5 nights at Pennsic that I possibly can, rain be damned? Like the early years, when I was so completely enamored of Pennsic, that I could barely sleep (a few hours every couple days seemed to suffice) for fear of missing something - wringing every last drop of Pennsicness from every second I could be on site?

That's tempting, in a year like this. Throwing caution and sensibility to the wind, and just deciding to go nuts with it. It's got potential ... I don't have to take very much with me, as it is, so I could really go Bohemian this year, and just resign myself to being constantly drenched and muddy, and who cares? It'll wash off. Bonus - when it rains that much, you can really get away with not taking camp showers (I hate camp showers; I'm grateful we have one, but I never feel really clean).

Decisions, decisions. Hmmm.