I called American Airlines today about the possibility of a flight change. After I booked in October, they changed my flight and I had heard that I might be able to change to something else. Unfortunately, though, they say there just are no other nonstop flights among their partners, so the original flight stands. I can work with it.
I was minding the office today, two days after tax season's end, in case anyone dropped by to pick something up. While I was hanging out, I got my shuttle tickets to and from O'Hare, confirmed my flight information into Madrid (Vaughan wants to know that I am really, really coming), checked in for my EasyJet flight from CDG to MAD, screenshotted my boarding pass and bus tickets (a practice that has come in handy more than once when I had trouble with an app at the last minute), and updated my calendar to include the address of the tapas reception - all baby steps that I didn't have time for in recent weeks.
I am leaning toward going to Valencia after VT instead of Mieres. My friend Carlos, from last year's VT, lives there and will be helping me plan a few days there when he gets back from Costa Rica in a week or so. I kind of goofed up in booking my tickets and didn't realize that getting back and forth from Paris would eat into my Spain time so much. I'm not regretting it, but I have to kind of work backwards from my outward flights to see how long I can stay. The trade-off, of course, is an afternoon in Paris and an afternoon and evening in Paris, so I can't really feel bad about it. And if the Publishers Clearing House people do come calling in a couple of weeks, I can still go to Spain in August (still haven't canceled that).
Still time to change my mind, but for now, that's it.
