Window shopping online is depressing

I've done this both with shoes and vacation spots. It's all depressing.

See, first I went and added about a million shoes to my Zappos wishlist. A lot of fantastically cute shoes that I can totally see Ginger Rogers dancing in. Or maybe Rose Marie wearing in the Dick Van Dyke Show. Seriously, has anyone ever noticed how fabulous her shoes are?? Mary Tyler Moore is always just in pumps. Rose Marie has fantastic shoes.

Anyway. So then I was all, let's plan a dream vacation on Expedia! But I couldn't make the website do what I wanted. I kept thinking it was actually gonna book me and I didn't really want that.

But just now I was reading [The Customer Is] Not Always Right and there's a lot of posts there from people in New Zealand, and a lot of time they talk about the Maori people. Being the occasionally naive American (I always forget that Australia and New Zealand were populated before the Brits started sending convicts there....), I was intrigued (hey, that shows my naivete is only occasional. I admit that I don't know everything and I try to learn. See? Really naive Americans either don't realize there's anything beyond our borders or think everything outside our borders is actually within our borders....). Wanting to know more about the Maori, I went to my favorite "won't teach you anything but will give you a little context/background for it" source: Wikipedia.

Wikipedia explained that the Maori were Polynesians who went to a different part of the South Pacific. I'm not sure if they left the Hawaii area or got separated from the ones who wound up in Hawaii. Either way, besides a lot of evolution, their culture is closest to Hawaiian/Polynesian type cultures.

Well, this reminded me of the Polynesian Resort in Disney World, which is where we used to stay. When I was little, my family went to Disney World pretty much every year during Christmas vacation (actually, I have no idea how often it was. I remember a lot of things as being every year that actually were a lot more occasional.... Or like how I remember my "uncle" Scotty [surrogate uncle. Mom's college friend. Practically full time babysitter. At least in my memory.] picking me up from kindergarten every day. My mother tells me it was more like once a week.) and while I'm sure we didn't always stay there, I don't remember staying anywhere else.

Anyway, I've always thought that when I discover some way to fund a trip to Disney World (yeah right), that's where I wanna stay.

So not gonna happen. During the "value season" the cheapest room is $385. And it doesn't look like that even includes continental breakfast, which means 3 meals a day on top of that, plus park admission, plus any kind of nightlife stuff (my parents used to go to the Adventurers Club and occasionally take us... That was awesome...)...

So I'm thinking when I go and take a vacation sans parents, it'll have to be to Vegas. You can stay in The Venetian, which is a far from lousy hotel, for $149. Plus in Vegas there's always the chance of coming out on top...

Although considering all you can do at 19 is scratch tickets, I'm not expecting much right now. But I do have a 21st birthday in a year and a half and it's never too early to start planning....

And no, I don't just wanna stay at the Venetian because that's where Phantom is. Added bonus.

'Course the downside to all this is my 21st birthday is gonna be a Wednesday, probably the first week back to class second semester. And going three hours west (time zone wise) is not really a great idea for a weekend. I mean, if you're gonna mess with your sleep, you might as well be gone long enough for it to make a difference.

Which means my 21st birthday trip (pardon me. 21st birthday DREAM trip.... Well, sort of dream. Is it bad that a part of me would rather Disney than Vegas for my 21st birthday?) won't be able to happen properly till March when I'll have a vacation....

'Course this is assuming I somehow have the means to go to Vegas. Or Orlando. Which honestly is unlikely.

See? This is the problem with online window shopping!!! I wind up thinking things through too much and being like, hey! I could do that! If I weren't in college and had a really awesome job with a really good salary that gave me really long weekends......

So, the moral of the story is: anyone wanna go to Disney World with me and front the cash for an epically fabulous hotel?? Oooh, and we should totally go to a character breakfast. I don't care where it is, they have them in the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian (well, ok, they did 10 years ago. I assume they still do.) and they have character lunches (maybe other meals too... I dunno...) in Cinderella's Castle. Which is where Peter Pan offered to teach me to fly when I was, like, 4. I don't actually remember that. Although I do remember him sitting on the back of a chair.

Sigh. Someday I'll be rich and famous and be able to spend two weeks in a super fantastic room at the Polynesian. Maybe.

That's the goal, anyway.