Fifty Bucks

I'm in love with Hotwire.

Matt is headed to Stanford soon for another interview. (I know! Isn't it sad that it didn't work out during our mega-trip?! We had a whole extra day in the Bay Area, too, they just couldn't do all his interviews that day.)

Stanford has made this extremely difficult to work out by:

1) Building their University in an awesome spot where all hotels are outrageously expensive. (The only things close to campus were over $250 a night.)

2) Only running their shuttle system from 6 am or later.

3) Starting his interviews at 6:20 am! (Ending at 5 pm!)

This is problematic. So he can't fly in and out in one day. He can't take the shuttle in the morning. He "can't" stay in a hotel close to campus.

So our next step is to price hotels and rental cars. Rental cars were going for, at the CHEAPEST, over $170 for less than a day. Blugh! (Whereas all his transportation would cost about two bucks if they had just scheduled his interviews late enough to come on their shuttle.)

Hotels were looking to be about $100, with public transportation BARELY feasible as long as he was willing to wander around the Bay Area at 4 in the morning. This was highly suspect, though.

Hotwire hotels were looking to be about $65, but without the benefit of knowing where they are—so still running the risk that a public transportation option wouldn't be feasible and he'd still need a rental car.

Enter Hotwire CAR+HOTEL option...!

Fifty bucks.

Say what?

Fifty bucks!!! Hotel is in Redwood City, between the airport and Stanford. Car is reserved for the day with unlimited mileage. With all taxes and everything: FIFTY BUCKS!!

I love you, Hotwire.

You got us a hotel in London last year—with a kickin' sweet breakfast every day—for $55 a night. (Cheap, nice hotels in London are impossible to find!)

You gave us lots of great places on our February trip for an average of about $45 a night.

You got us a hotel in San Francisco with FREE PARKING for $32 a night! On a nice corner. Walking distance to the good stuff. (When we went to SF a couple years ago, the hotel parking ALONE cost an unbelievable $48 a day. Free parking! Not scummy. GREAT location! $32 a night!!)

And now this.... Hotel+Car=$50.15.

You're my hero. :)

Sometimes, I'm not sure why.

Can anyone tell me why I hate—HATE—these? Why every time I see someone using one, my insides involuntarily shudder?

It's not because I'm uncomfortable seeing people nursing because I'm really not. I do think people should try to be discreet out in public, mostly just because it seems polite. But, honestly, the hilarious lady I saw at Costco a little while ago who was weaving through the crowded food court to inquire about her pizza with her shirt pulled all the way up and a huge 2 1/2-year-old only periodically breastfeeding (when he wasn't pulling completely off to look at what was going on :)) bothered me a whole lot less than seeing someone using one of these stylin' nursing covers.

But . . . why? I've thought long and hard, and I'm not sure why they disgust me so much! Anyone else have a similar response and know why? :)

Is it because it's too deliberate a cover-up? Throwing your baby's blanket over your shoulder when your baby wants to eat seems spontaneous and low-key, I guess. Fishing through your diaper bag to pull out the cover you keep with you at all times, then clipping it around your neck.... This thing designed for this purpose alone.... Is it gross to me to see so many women making too big a deal of it, or something...? Feeling that self-conscious...?

Is it because I once saw them in Target with the brand-name "Hooter Hiders?" (Now that's just WRONG! Ack!)

Is it because they're supposed to be "stylish?" That might be part of it, for sure. A fashion statement out of breastfeeding? Huh.

Is it because they LOOK LIKE AN APRON?!! I mean, come on, they look like aprons...! Now you can be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, or wearing your apron at the park to feed your baby.

Or maybe it's because I've never once been flashed by someone using a baby blanket to cover up, but I've been flashed about a gazillion times by moms trying to make sense of their apron-esque "hooter hider." :-|

Perhaps it's something else entirely. Some trauma deep in my sub-conscious.... :)

At any rate, they make me shudder. An out of proportion response, I know. But if we ever have another baby, just remember not to get me one. ;-)

Random Memories

You ever have things that you memorized as a kid and they've inexplicably stuck around in your memory...? Things you can recall with ease, even though you never think about them....

As geeks around the world were celebrating Pi Day yesterday (get it? 3.14? hehe), it reminded me again of two things:

1) I can rattle off the first 25 digits of pi.

2) I used to be able to rattle off 50! But it's gone.... Gone!

I don't know which is sadder: 1 or 2. Haha! As for #1, here goes. Observe the sad geekiness. (It's awesomer to hear it all fast and stuff, but oh well....)

3.1415926535897932384626433

If you check it and I'm wrong, don't tell me. I'd like to think my 9-year-old self that memorized that is still in there reciting it. :)

As for #2, sometimes I'm tempted to go memorize the next 25 digits again, just to rekindle that 4th-grade feeling. But it's cheating. I mean, the fun thing about remembering things for years and years is that it's somehow stuck around, not that you have something memorized. It isn't fun to know the first 50 digits of pi—it's fun to still know the first 50 digits of pi. But it's gone. Whittled away to only 25.... When I'm an old lady I'll probably only remember 3.1 . . . what's next . . . ? But I'll be pretty sure it's a remnant from 4th grade still.

Also in 4th grade (I was on fire!) I memorized the greek alphabet—all of which is still there, but when I rattle it off I realize that 4th-grader me pronounced some of those letters all, all wrong. :) And I painstakingly figured out how to say the alphabet backwards, going from Z to A in about 1.4 seconds. Or something like that.... It's still in there, too.

My other favorite random throwback—why do I still remember this?—is a preposition list from 7th grade. Aboard, about, above, across, after, against . . . it goes on and on and ON and on. It can spew out of my mouth in about 5 seconds. If I take a breath, it's gone. But if I get it all out like it's just one word? Still there...!

Isn't the brain awesome? Funky and fun. ;)

Pi Day postscript:

I got a text message from Matt today that amused me. "So, I'm all depressed now because I realized that Pi Day garnered all sorts of press, but I've seen nary a headline about the Ides of March. :( Don't geeks get any training in the classics anymore?!!!!" I had to reply that, well, I've been thinking about the Ides all day but, yes, what about the children? Happy—or Spooky—IDES, everyone! :)