Accepted

Thursday is our anniversary - 15 years!! Wow, I can't believe it. Last year we decided we were going to Greece to celebrate 15. For some reason, numbers that end in 5 seem to be significant anniversaries. Well, guess what. We aren't going. I'm not upset about it either, the timing would not have been right for what we have going on right now anyway. It is so hard to plan such a big trip so far in advance. I've said before that I'm a planner YES, but a stickler, NO. I'm a little weird in that I like to have flexibility. This makes it very hard to plan a vacation so far out. At any rate, we are saving about a bazillion dollars by not taking this trip. Who would have guessed last summer that we would be in THIS economic pit! It looked grim then, but I tend to try to see the sunnier side. How much farther down can we go? We are still celebrating though.

I've checked our favorite Embassy Suites - this is our anniversary tradition and it has never cost more than $120 for a room. Well, we aren't in Kansas anymore and the area is booming. We now have a new Amphitheater and we are blessed with RUSH in concert this week. I love them, appreciate their talents and have given them a lot of my money in the past. But this week they are really F-ing up my anniversary!! My usual hotel room is now inflated to $229!!! This is not even in Atlanta, we are in a northern burb!! Downtown, I see it. Here, uhmmm, NO! This new addition to our area is going to drive up prices at all area hotels anytime there is a concert and that just SUCKS!!

I hopped onto Priceline for the first time and I made a bid on a hotel in the Atlanta area. After trying countless ways to get a room for under $150 I was ready to give up. I bid a ridiculous $89 for a 4 star hotel in Buckhead. Ha, it will never happen. The average price I was seeing on the hotel sites was ranging from $250 to $400 for this particular night. OUCH! Much to my surprise, my bid was ACCEPTED! We now have some pretty fancy anniversary plans. We are staying at a $389/night hotel for $89. Go figure. Now, we don't get the free booze or breakfast like at the Embassy Suites, but hey, I've got some extra coinage now, we can hit the bar! I'm really stoked about it. Aside from not getting to choose your own brand and who knows what bedsize we will get, the Priceline deal has seemingly worked very well for us. I suppose that some of my husbands CHEAPNESS is wearing off on me. Even if I had endless supplies of cash, I can't see paying $389 to sleep. The shocking part is that the $389 price is for a standard room, the prices only go UP from there for this hotel. CRAZY!!

I want to use Priceline for our trip to Chicago, but since I'm taking the kids along I feel like I need more control over what we get. I'll be ripped a new one by the Embassy Suites in downtown Chicago so this is a breath of fresh air for now. If you have a Hilton coupon, please think of me!!!