So Grown Up

About a month ago, my friend Maayan and I got the idea in our heads that we ought to try to go to Coachella this year.

I had a sneaking suspicion, which turned out to be right, that Mumford and Sons would be there. When it was announced that they would be, "try to" turned to "WE ARE GOING!"

Which, today, turned into, "Know what? I just can't do this."

Sad but true--both of us are in financial spots where raising $500 each in the next couple of months (Coachella is in April) is nearly impossible. The cheapest option for accomadations, car camping, is sold out to scalpers who are profiting on eBay as I type this. Tickets themselves have gone up a bit in price because now you are required to buy a shuttle pass with the three-day festival pass. All area hotels are sold out for that weekend.

So after three hours on the phone this morning, burning the wires between California and New York (and with Nebraska asking us, the Wall of Sound, to keep it down, please) as we discussed the pros, the cons, the "yes, I can manage that, but I can't manage that" and the endless money woes that come with being unemployed music teachers or up-and-coming actresses in the Big Apple, we made the very difficult and very grown-up decision to not make financial matters harder on ourselves by forcing Coachella to happen.

Instead, we've turned our attention to the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco, which is smaller and less likely to be visited by our beloved Mumford boys, but also way less expensive, and closer to Stockton, leaving out the long hours in the car driving to Indio.

It's also in August, giving us more time to plan, save money for tickets and accomodations, and we can still have what Maayan referred to as an epic First Friend Date (seeing as how we haven't actually met in person yet--kind of crazy and shocking).

We're both disappointed, for sure--it would have been a blast to go to Coachella, with its amazing lineup this year--but also optimistic that our big adventure will still happen, just later and not in the middle of a California desert.

And who knows, maybe I'll even get to New York this year. : )