Awww, that's a dilemma, Tom! That's actually the only weekend in May that I wasn't planning to see Celtic Woman, so I got lucky. I'm also glad it's on a Saturday; it looks like I could be there without missing any work, though maybe I should take an extra day off of work just so I can be fully rested for the concert and have some extra time to figure out why Peachtree City is such an amazing place to live.
--David
Have fun.
I went back and forth on the possibilities a lot over the past few hours since she posted that:
- It might not be her show. It might be something else going on May 11 with her students. Though for both academies to involved at once... yeah it's extremely likely to be her show.
- I am going to 3 other Ancient Land shows with M+Gs besides the Calgary show, so the loss of one show / M+G isn't as huge as if it was the only show I were going to.
- I'm already really deep into the planning of the Calgary trip (I was actually going to be booking stuff this weekend). Too deep to give it up.
- The CW Meet and Greet is already paid for and non-refundable. So if I gave up the Calgary trip, I'd have to write it off and eat the full cost.
- The CW show would be better production value than Lisa's show.
- But seeing Lisa's show gives me greater show variety than seeing Ancient Land 4 times, as awesome as that will be.
- If I tried to do both shows in the same weekend, I might be completely exhausted and not be able to enjoy either show, the CW M+G, or Red Rocks later in the month.
- The girls deserve for me to be in good spirits at one of their M+Gs. Even if I could fly to Calgary from Atalanta the morning of the CW show, I have to imagine spending hours in airports and on and off airplanes would leave me in a pretty sorry state by M+G time. I might even fall asleep during the show. There's really no point in me going to a show in that state and the girls deserve better from me.
- Cost of 4 flights for basically 2 weekend shows is pretty ridiculous, especially after currency exchange.
- Lisa's show will not have a M+G and no realistic chance of a stage and greet (depends on the venue, I suppose, but at the Fred, there was no reasonable chance of meeting her).
- It's possible Lisa will have a Christmas show later this year and if it doesn't run into Best of Christmas 2019, I might be able to go to that one.
- There's also a possibility Chloë will do a non-orchestra show near Georgia later this year for which Lisa could be a guest (like in Dec 2018). That would likely have a M+G which Lisa might be part of.
- Writing off Lisa's spring show greatly reduces the stress conserving vacation days. It basically lets me fly to at least one more show later in the year (CaraNua, Lisa Lambe, Hayley, etc.).
- There's flights to/from Calgary and my local airport at good times and costs.
- There's no non-stop flight and apparently not even a direct flight (stops but no change of airplanes) from Atlanta to Calgary
I considered the various options:
- Dropping Calgary trip and just doing Lisa's show
- Dropping Lisa's show and just doing the Calgary show
- Trying to do both shows by flying from Atlanta to Calgary on May 12
I think I've come to the conclusion at this point that I'm not dropping Calgary, whether Lisa's show is on May 11 or not.
So the plan at this point is to wait for an official announcement on Lisa's show (if that's what it is), then book all the stuff in Calgary to accommodate Lisa's show, including a connecting flight between Atlanta and Calgary. I hope I'm not completely wiped out by show time (assuming I make it to Calgary on time for the show), but either way, I'll have fewer regrets if I try it (even if it ends up being a disaster) than if I just write off a show without trying.
That is going to be a heck of an expensive and stressful trip, but we'll see how it goes.