MACHU PICCHU!

Oh, my goodness! I'm so excited I can hardly sleep. I have got Machu Picchu on the brain. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I became fixated on this place several years ago. I think it all started with a lecture in dental school by the single most boring dentist on the face of the earth. Because he was sooooooooo boring, he forced us to come to class by taking attendance, which they did by having us sit in alphabetical assigned seats. So I settled into my place between Taiym and Tran, my Palestinian and Vietnamese neighbors (who, while sweet as can be, were not what I would call "chatty") with a crossword puzzle and pen in hand. Okay, the crossword puzzle wasn't too out of the ordinary, but I wasn't cozily ensconced between my three very bestest friends, Al, Ann & Jill, so I was prepared for boredom. But Dr. Stromberg started this first lecture of the semester a little differently. He spent 10 minutes showing us pictures and telling us about his trip to Peru, where he hiked the Inca Trail. All of a sudden, a picture of Machu Picchu popped up on the screen, and I fell instantly and madly in love.

At this point in my life, I was a poor dental student with an even poorer dental student boyfriend. Since there wasn't an M&M's chance at fat camp I could get El Cheapo to shell out $100 for anything, much less the $2000 it would cost to get to Peru, I stashed my dream vacay aside for better times (and, for that matter, a better boyfriend).

Well, friends, my dream is coming true. I AM GOING TO MACHU PICCHU! Jeff, the sweetest, most wonderful, most considerate boyfriend in the whole entire world (and, as you can see from my previous post, quite the cutie!), is taking me to Peru for my 30th birthday in October. We had been chatting about my "birthday trip" for a while, but were just a little facetious when throwing around the idea of going to South America. I was honestly thinking about a weekend in New York City or something small. I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined a 10-day trip to Peru. It was totally meant to be. Jeff thought we might be able to book these flights with miles instead of dollars, but wasn't quite sure how much, if any, more affordable that would be. So we had a long conversation with American Airlines on Monday night, during which we learned that a trip from DFW to Cuzco, Peru, and a return trip from Arequipas, Peru, back to DFW would run exactly 35,000 miles each. Jeff had 59,500 miles in his AAdvantage account and knew he would get 3,600 more this week from a trip to Phoenix for work. So we're sitting at 63,000 miles. Then the lady said something about, "What about your companion? Does she have any miles?" Light bulb! Me: "[audible gasp] I think I do have some miles! I got some email about it a few weeks ago!" A few short seconds and a quick Gmail search later, I found my AAdvantage Account Summary email, which stated that I have a little over 7,500 miles. 63,000 + 7,500 = 70,500. Now is that fate, or what?