I’ve been meaning to open this account forever, pulling in nearly 5% interest on the cash that’s sitting there, waiting for me to blow through it. No worries, cash. I’ve got plenty to spend you on. Besides the new teeth, I have lots of travel coming up.

Whenever Southwest has a sale, a friend and I are heading to LA for a quick look-around. A night in Santa Barbara, a day in Ventura, a night in Santa Monica, and plenty of sun and sand. I’m pretty excited about this trip, since I’ll be scoping out living arrangements and making contacts for job-related inquiries.

In April I’m heading to Dallas to run another marathon. A friend is heading down south with me, certainly to put my jogger-ass to shame with her speedy ways. So long as I beat my previous marathon, I won’t complain. Once the death rattle cough is gone, I’ll be back on the treadmill for hours at a time instead of the measly 30 minutes I’m doing now.

The end of April is a week-long trip to London to meet up with an Internet friend. I don’t know what there’s to do in London when you’re not particularly interested in going to the tourist traps, but I’m sure there will be plenty to do and see. I went to London once, hated it, and am now giving it another shot to change my mind.

May is a possible week-long trip to Hawaii with a friend whose cousin has invited us to stay in his villa for free. I can scrape up airfare for the opportunity to go without having to pay for hotel, yes sir!

Then over Memorial Day, I have another marathon. This time I’m venturing only a few hours away to Madison, marking Wisconsin off my list of states raced in.

I’ve luckily already paid for some of this airfare, but I’ll still need to come up with a good chunk of change for the recently-added trips. If I have to eat dried beans for the next two months, so be it. I’d rather jet-set all over than stay in Chicago before it hits 85 degrees here.

Speaking of that, today is absolutely miserable. Rain, grey skies, cold. Blah! All I want to do is eat carbs, lounge at home with Hambone, and drink large amounts of Diet Coke. No fun.

I might or might not have just settled down with a can of Spaghetti-Os and a Diet Rite soda. That’s all I’m saying.