Travel Tips: Frugal Flying

Summer approaches, and even if you aren't a teacher who is about to have 3 months of uninterrupted vacation (jealous!), now is the time when most of us start planning vacations.  I've done my fare share of traveling (see what I did there? bazinga), and there are ways to get the most out of your vacation while not completely depleting yourself of funds, thus requiring you to live off Ramen Noodles upon your return.

It's appropriate, then, for a series of posts about travel tips!  So let's get down to the most expensive, annoying, frustrating, mind-f*&%ing aspect of traveling:  Flying.

If you are traveling internationally, this can be the most expensive aspect of your trip.  Even if you are keeping your vacation domestic, between rising fuel costs and airlines hiking up miscellaneous fees faster than Paris Hilton hikes up her skirt, a roundtrip ticket within the Continental U.S. can still be costly. 

I'm a big believer in using Kayak, Cheap Tickets, and similar comparative search engines to find the cheapest flights.  Too often we end up booking with U.S.-based airlines, when other international ones - like KLM Dutch or Air India - have cheaper flights. These websites search a database of hundreds of airlines around the globe, so you know you're getting the best deal.

Here are a few of my money-saving tips for booking that flight: 

1.  Flexibility: If you are planning your trip far enough in advance and your dates are flexible, click the "Flexible Dates" box and the sites will compare prices over a span of several departure dates to get you the cheapest deal. 

2. Weekends: Flying on Fridays and Sundays typically costs the most, so if you can schedule your flights mid-week, you can save some dough.

3.  Fare Hikes: Ticket prices typically go up 21, 14, 7, and 3 days before the departure date, so try to book your ticket before these deadlines.

4.  Fare Sales: Airlines usually launch sales on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so these are often the best days of the week to purchase a flight.  I have seen fare differences of $60-$80 dollars from a Tuesday/Wednesday to Thursday.

5.  Layovers: If you don't mind them, flights with 1 or 2 stops are often cheaper, so select this option when searching on whatever site you use.  This is an especially good option if you are traveling internationally and in for an 8+ hour trek anyway.

6.  Price Alerts: Several months before your trip, set up a "Price Alert" on Kayak and other comparison sites, including specific airline websites. You'll receive a weekly email of price fluctuations for flights to your destination, and special notifications if the price drops. 

7.  Emails: Sign up for emails from Orbitz, Expedia, and the like, as they all send out regular emails with great flight deals to various destinations.  It makes for a more crowded inbox, but on numerous occasions I have found the flight I needed in their "Daily Deals" and saved myself some serious cash.

8.  Track Fares: Using Bing Fare's "Price Predictor",  you can plug in your anticipated travel dates and see whether flights should increase or decrease based on price trends, so you can plan when to book that ticket and try to do so during a predicted decrease.

9.  Air Passes:  If you are planning on doing a lot of traveling around one country or within a few countries (such as Australia or Europe), consider getting an Air Pass, which will offer discounts for traveling within one country or region.

10.  Ask for a Refund: If you purchase your ticket and the price drops soon after, ask the airline for a refund!  You may not get one, but refund policies vary between airlines and some simply don't publicize that they offer refunds.  It doesn't hurt to ask!

11.  Late Deals:  For spontaneous trips, make sure you check out travel deals on Orbitz, Expedia, and various airlines.  If they need to fill up seats, they will offer huge discounts for late ticket bookers, and will usually feature this option in a "Deals" or "Late Trips" section of their website.

12.  Use Social Media:  Follow airlines or services like Travel Zoo on Twitter and "Like" them on Facebook.  They frequently post "Today Only" flight deals for various popular destinations, or offer discount promotion codes for booking your ticket. 

13.  Credit Cards:  If you travel a lot, consider getting a credit card linked to an airline.  You rack up miles for purchases you make on the card, and this can result in free tickets or a hefty number of frequent flier miles that you can put towards a ticket purchase.

14.  Shop One Passenger at a Time:   Airline ticket reservations systems aren't budget-friendly when quoting prices for two or more passengers.  If the cheapest price-point has one seat less than the requested number of passengers in your search, it bumps everyone up to the next price level that has enough seats, and continues until it finds a price point with enough seats to meet your request. This means that even though some of your party could actually fly at a cheaper price, you won’t get that opportunity.  The solution:  Shop for one seat at a time! It's more annoying because you'll have to split your transaction in two, but could literally save you hundreds.

Next post: How to save money once you get to your destination!

Not a Walk in the Park: Running for Beginners

When I first decided I wanted to start running, the lawyer in me kicked in and I immediately purchased as many runner's magazines as I could.  I wanted to know everything there was to know about running.  I read article after article, thinking I would suddenly become a running genius.  Not so. 

It hit me that if someone like me (who painstakingly researches just about everything) had questions, then other new runners would to.  So I sat down to the computer and started making a list of all the things I've learned in the last year about this solo sport.  I hope to provide a few tips for would-be runners in each post over the next several weeks (as I gear up for my big marathon, which you can read about here).  Bear in mind that these are just my personal thoughts/experiences, and by no means is it gospel.

Whether you’ve decided to start running because Adam Awesome-Butt or Leggy Lisa runs past you every Saturday morning and has inspired you to take up running for the “scenery”, or you want to drop a few pounds but don’t want to commit to becoming a gym rat –your feet will soon be pounding the pavement. Whichever category you happen to fall into, in the words of Forrest Gump: “You’ll be runnaaaang.”

You’ve picked up the latest copy of Runner’s World, like I did, and started reading a few online articles, trying to figure out where and how to begin. But you find yourself confused by all the “4x800” and “negative split” jargon. You’re concerned about making it through those first 3 miles without suffering a coronary, not setting a PR (to be truthful, you don’t really know what a PR is anyway).

The truth is, even Olympic track athletes had their first run. Granted, it was probably when they were 7 and they ended up lapping their 14-year old opponents, but nonetheless, everyone starts at the beginning. Undoubtedly, you have some basic questions that advanced runners no longer have. And if you don’t have any now, you will.

I started running a year ago and I’m still a newbie by any standard. In preparing to run my first half-marathon, I tried to weave through the truckload of information Google spit back at me. But I found that most of it was simply beyond my level. I didn’t want to know about fartleks or ladders. I wanted to know what shoe I should get; what clothing was best; how much should I run each week; what if I get injured; what if I feel like I can’t do it. The answers to these questions are common knowledge for many runners out there, but for me, they were unknowns. But they were essential to my success.

If you’ve just started running and are training for a race, be it a 5k, 10k, half marathon, or the full 26.2, this series of posts may be helpful. You won’t find any fancy running jargon here. Just fundamental questions and answers, discovered through the successes (and failures) of a true novice.

Evaluate why you want to Run

If the answer to this question eludes you, unlace those sneakers and hold on a minute. Like anything in life, before taking up this challenging task, you need to emotionally connect with it first. If you are running to lose weight or compete in races down the line, that’s great. If you are running so you can spend some quality fitness time outdoors, that’s also great. But if you are starting to run on a whim and don’t have a reason why, I encourage you to think of one that can provide you with some motivation. The key to becoming successful in running is (Sorry, Nike!) to just do it. But if you are mentally and emotionally disconnected from the task at hand, you won’t get very far, literally or figuratively, and eventually those Girl Scout Cookies and DVR’d episodes of Chopped will lure you away from your pavement mistress.

Find the right shoe and clothing

Don’t just Google “Running shoes that won’t give me bunions” like I did. I ended up with a shoe that wasn’t right for my gait, half a size too small, and resulted in persistent foot cramps and blisters that frightened even the most seasoned pedicurist. Take the time (and be willing to spend the money) to go to a store like Luke’s Locker and have an expert help you find the right shoe. Your running form, foot width, past injuries, and anatomy all play a part in determining the right shoe. And the right shoe is absolutely essential to both being successful at running and keeping your feet and legs from becoming mangled tree roots and/or being so swollen they ruin any chance you have at coitus with an attractive male.

Skip the fancy gadgets

My best advice: if it takes you longer to understand the instructions for that fancy GPS watch/heart rate monitor thingy than it does to brush your teeth, put it down and walk away slowly. Not saying that happened to me or anything, just some girl I know named…um…Jenny.

When you are first starting to run, knowing your time, pace, and mileage is all you need. Focusing on things such as your split or heart rate draws your attention away from the most important lesson of those first few months: learning to listen to and understand your body. Eventually, you will need to get to a point where you know, based on how you feel, that you’ve hit your mileage or ideal pace. If you constantly rely on and fuss with your equipment during your runs to keep you on track, you risk getting out of tune with your body, which can lead to overexertion, injuries, or running into a traffic sign while you check your heart rate. That Jenny, what a klutz…
 
 
Check back in a couple of weeks for posts on balancing your social life and training, and knowing the signs of overtraining!

Current Obsession: Neon

We had an early Spring this year in Texas, and Summer feels like it will arrive any day.  I love transitioning my wardrobe from Winter to Spring, because I feel like the bright colors in my closet can finally come out to play.

My favorite new color trend involves all things neon.  Pinks, Greens, Electric Blues.  From nails to bags to accessories, these colors are dominating my wardrobe.

Today I am sporting neon pink nails and a neon green/electric blue necklace.  So I don't look like one giant highlighter, I paired it with black cigarette pants and a black blazer with a basic cami.  I am also on a mission to get these shoes, from Ann Taylor.

The Hoo Ha about the Hoo Ha

Minus the random Facebook posting and heated discussions with close friends and family, I have avoided discussing on this blog the resurgence of women's issues into the political discourse.  Perhaps it was denial that this is real life; that in 2012, I'm reading bills that have been introduced into state legislatures that would proclaim single-parenthood "child abuse" or give employers a green light to fire a woman for using birth control pills for pregnancy prevention.  My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother already fought these wars, and at least with respect to some issues, they had won.  I've seen this movie already.  Roll credits. 

Maybe I've kept these issues off my blog because I felt overwhelmed.  There are so many words that there are almost no words.

Even now, as I hastily pound my fingers into the keys, I'm paralyzed by the sheer number of thoughts and opinions I have towards what appears to be a crusade against women.  And no, I don't believe that is overstating the issue. I'm not sure what else one could call it.  Those who claim that either the media is fueling the liberal fire, or that the issue is really "religious freedom" must not understand the social, legal, and civil rights implications of these issues.

As a lawyer, I analyze, review, research, play devil's advocate, and dissect each word of a sentence to discover what laws, articles, opinions, and speeches really mean.  It's hard for me not to think like a lawyer.  I've spent the last 6 years of my life doing it.

But it's even harder for me not to think like a woman. 

Before I consider myself a lawyer - before I consider myself a daughter, sister, friend, or girlfriend - I consider myself a woman.  And I say that proudly. 

Religions have historically marginalized our usefulness to society, reserving for us only places in the home and the bedroom, the object of mens' sexual and procreative desires.  Governments have fared no better, denying us the right to vote, the right to see our sexual offenders punished, the right to equal pay for equal work, to name only a few.  As a gender, we have fought tooth and nail to overcome the prejudices towards us. Women in power are vilified and called bitches. We are labeled sluts and prostitutes for having a sex life or expressing a sexual desire.  Told we are too emotional/weak/inexperienced to play with the big boys.  But we have fought nonetheless, never accepting the repressive roles that many individuals in society had carved out for us.

It would be ignorant and uniformed to claim that we have not made progress towards equalizing the sexes.  But it would be equally ignorant and uninformed to pretend that we don't need to make more.

Enter the 2012 Presidential and Congressional Elections.  Amid a struggling economy, jobless graduates, skyrocketing rates of foreclosure, war, an energy crisis, and a national debt that continues to snowball into numbers that I don't even know how to pronounce, the vagina has been front and center.  The broo ha ha about the hoo ha has overshadowed the economic issues that should be dominating debates, speeches, and political platforms.  I'm not sure where the sudden interest in my uterus comes from, but I have a few theories.

Conservatives have made impressive careers hijacking moral issues in order to extort votes from its conservative base.  Knowing full well how inflammatory the issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception are, conservative candidates draw on these emotions to convince their Republican voters to vote against their own interests.  Case in point: a large number of conservative voters are direct beneficiaries of the very government programs their "small government" candidates would do away with.  Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, welfare, and other government subsidies, statistically, get funnelled into "Red" states more than "Blue" states.  It is admittedly not that simple, as at least a part of that has to do with the types of industries that dominate red vs. blue states.  Nonetheless, many career conservative voters would benefit in their daily economic lives from the more traditional "democrat" approach to the economy, taxes, and funding for social programs.

The focus on the uterus and contraception is a convenient distraction from the much tougher economic issues.  As complicated as religion, sex, and morality are, overhauling an essentially broken financial system and economy is, in my opinion, decidedly more difficult than asking voters to decide whether they "like" abortion or the gay couple down the street tying the knot.  There are simply more limbs to the tree than most politicians know what to do with, Democrat and Independent candidates included.

I don't want to think that the renewed focus on previously "settled" women's rights issues is a result of a legitimate desire to revert back to historical gender roles.  But then I hear Rick Santorum speak, and my hope begins to wane.  He certainly represents the most radical and conservative of modern-day Republican candidates, but if his views are so radical as to not appeal to the men and women of this country, that begs the question: How is he winning primaries?

So I urge all individuals to actively contemplate what matters most to them, and get out and vote in both the Presidential and Congressional elections. Let us not forget that the laws passed by the State in which we live have a greater effect on us than most federal laws.

There may not be a solution for this country anywhere on the horizon.  But I do know if we are to have a shred of hope in finding it, the focus does not need to be on my uterus.

25 Things That Are More Important Than Regulating My Uterus

Let me start by saying that I don't typically like writing about political issues on my blog because the stupidity that is rampant in this country with respect to economic and social issues tends to make me feel like my head is in imminent danger of exploding.

That being said, with the trajectory the 2012 Presidential Election is taking, along with what appears to be a serious case of regression occurring in this country, sometimes a girl's just gotta vent. 

I used to dismiss the ultra-conservative, religious right wing babble about limiting access to contraception, overturning Roe vs. Wade, passing "Personhood" amendments in various state constitutions, and requiring invasive intravaginal ultrasounds in order to get access to abortion services as simply that - babble.  Nothing that had a chance at becoming a legitimate issue or platform for political candidates, much less becoming law.

But oh how I was wrong.  In watching the Santorum/Romney/Gingrich "debate" the other day, in addition to laughing hysterically at the utter ineptitude of any of these individuals to even form sensical arguments, much less run the country, I realized that they were actually debating access to contraception.  In 2012. During the period before a presidential election.  Gingrich even used the word "infanticide" at one point.

The ridiculousness of it all finally became too much, and at one point I considered punching our expensive LG TV because it seemed like the only option available to express my building frustration.

This post could go on for pages if I were to get into every factual, legal, social, and economic reason why the debate about restricting women's reproductive rights is not only offensive, but a waste of time.  But in the interest of saving all 3 of you who will read this a little time, here is a list of 25 issues that are more important than regulating my uterus, in no particular order.  Many of these issues are intertwined with one another, and accomplishing one would help accomplish another.  Aren't these the kinds of things the Presidential Hopefuls should be debating and discussing?

1.  Creating jobs.

2.  Improving efficiency and access to public transportation in major cities across America.

3.  Legalizing same-sex marriage federally.

4.  Broadening access to affordable healthcare for all citizens, whether that means creating a nationalized healthcare system or improving the privatized one.

5.  Increasing manufacturing in this country, so as to decrease our reliance on foreign countries and create jobs domestically.

6.  Decreasing the federal deficit by engaging in smarter spending and cutting the usage of federal funds to pass or enforce pointless laws (such as, e.g., the raiding of legal marijuana selling operations in California).

7.  Creating a more sensible and less complicated tax code.

8.  Creating more effective regulations in the financial sector (not necessarily "more" regulations) to avoid future disasters like the sub-prime mortgage crisis that resulted in a $700 billion bailout.

9.  Ensuring better access to mental health services and job placement assistance for veterans.

10.  Providing healthy, wholesome meals for children in schools, thus stifling adult healthcare problems stemming from obesity.

11.  Improving inner-city education and helping low-income children gain access to higher education.

12.  Decreasing the cost of higher education.

13.  Reforming federal sentencing guidelines to more accurately capture the appropriate sentence for non-violent, first-time drug offenders and reducing a needlessly high incarceration rate.

14.  Improving conditions in prisons, both for human rights purposes and to reduce the currently high recidivism rate.

15.  Passing laws that will incentivize pharmaceutical companies to either give or sell, at actual cost, even a fraction of superfluous life-saving drugs sitting in their warehouses, such as HIV and Tuberculosis medications, to organizations that would use it to help the millions suffering needlessly in poorer parts of the world.

16.  Figuring out a way to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

17.  Finding ways to increase funding for research into cures or more effective treatments for cancer, HIV, and other genetic and acquired diseases.

18.  Increasing the puny salaries for teachers, cops, firemen, and other essential social service workers.

19.  Reducing the number of guns obtained illegally and the associated gun violence.

20.  Developing a cost-effective solar energy program and increasing the use of wind and hydro energy, so that we can decrease our reliance on violent Middle-Eastern regimes for our oil.

21.  More stringent enforcement of the Equal Pay Act.  I think it's finally time that women make more than 76 cents for every dollar a man makes.

22.  Increasing the availability of counseling and other social services for victims of domestic and sexual violence.

23.  Promoting the support of local farms and ranches.

24.  Improving the quality of education in our schools and doing away with our reliance on standardized testing as the benchmark for success.

25.  Getting real support for a Stephen Colbert/Jon Stewart ticket for the 2016 Presidential Election.


I know there are many important issues that were left out of this list, but I had to keep it to 25.  What issues would you add?

26.2

I recently completed my first half-marathon (recap here), an accomplishment of which I was hugely proud. 

Never one to focus on past accomplishments for too long, however, I set my sights on a second race, the Rock 'n Roll Half on March 25.  I'm currently up to week 7 in training, and I'm happy to say that it is much easier the second time around!  A lot of that has to do with the fact that I only took 3 weeks off between my first race and beginning training for my second, and kept up with my fitness with cardio and yoga during that break, so it feels like my stamina carried over from my last training.  And thank goodness for that...I'm not sure I could start from scratch again.

Knowing myself as well as I do, though, I knew that after completing my second half marathon, I'd say "Now what???"  Always pushing my boundaries has served me well in life thus far, except when it hasn't.  But when it comes to fitness goals, barring pushing oneself all the way to a nasty injury, I'm not sure if there's ever a "too far." 

So it is with great fear, nervousness, anxiety, excitement, and trepidation that I make public (well, as public as this blog really is) that I am going for the whole shebang in October.  That's right.  I will be attempting to run 26.2 miles at the Portland Marathon on October 7.

Less than 1% of the world population will run a full marathon in their lifetime.  My passion for running and competing aside, I love the idea of becoming a member of that 1% (hey, it is the only "1%" I will likely ever belong to!)

I have been reading and compiling articles on preparing for your first marathon, since I don't like to go into anything unprepared.  I start training the first week of June, which as you Texas people know, means I'll be building my mileage in the hottest months of the year.  I've accepted that for those months, I'll likely have to do most of my runs on the dreadmill so I won't overheat, or in the alternative wake up at the ass-crack of dawn to do my longest runs.  But, the road to success is never without obstacles, so I am embracing it and trying to look at the positives - that training in heat will toughen me up and give me an edge going into the marathon.

Below is my training plan.  I am trying not to look past week 1 right now, because I am up to 7 miles in my training right now, so those first few weeks feel doable.  If I spend too much time looking at that scary 20-miler, I might back out, so for now I'm pretending that isn't there.

I'll keep the blog updated with my progress.  For now, I'm going to focus on getting through this half marathon first, with this as my motto:

A New Endeavor

I've been thinking a lot about the trajectory I want 2012 to take.  Now that I actually have some free time thanks to my new job, I want to continue to explore interests and passions that historically have been placed on the backburner.

As we all know, I like to write.  Maybe I'm good at it, maybe not, it's hard to tell when the words on the page are such personal products of your inner voice.  Objectively characterizing one's own writing as "good" or "bad" is a task I have not yet mastered.

And so I figured maybe it was time to put it to the test.  I'm going to start submitting queries to magazines.  For those who aren't aware, a query is simply a letter to a lower-level editor, describing or pitching an article you'd like to write (or in my case, may have already written), and explaining how the article would both fit into the source's platform and how it would engage readers.  Since most of my posts of late have dealt with fitness/eating healthy, that's going to be my initial focus.  However, after I get the hang of this "query" business (and undoubtedly receive dozens of rejection letters), I hope to expand my freelance attempts into other topics, such as travel, beauty, and music.

Here's hoping a few editors find my writing as interesting as my Mom does.