expensive conferences

I just spent $320 on a ticket to San Antonio for the end of January. I justified going to this conference since I need a job by May and because I have semi-estranged family in San Antonio and it will be good to visit them.

You can get a flight from O'Hare to San Antonio right now for about $140 round trip. However. The cheap flights are all at 8 AM and have ridiculous amounts of waiting time between connecting flights (on average 3 hours a pop). Factor that into the $80 round-trip ticket I'd have to pay for the shuttle to the airport, which only leaves every four hours, as well as the taxes on top of the ticket, and you're looking at a trip costing about $250 and a full days' worth of travelling time on each side. So I think $320 out of Champaign made some sense (even though the connections aren't going to be that much better, at least I don't have to get my ass to Chicago by 6 AM--I'd have to get a 1 or 2 AM shuttle at that rate).

I am so ready to blow the popsicle stand that is C-U, Illinois. My life is far too important and busy to be so highly inconvenienced whenever I need to fly anywhere. :)

Thank God I'm sharing a room with like, eighty people. I think. Hmm. Guess I'd better double-check that.