For the last couple of months, I’ve been thinking about going to Portland for a Subud gathering held the weekend before Thanksgiving. When I mentioned that I was pondering this possibility to my mom, she hopefully suggested that I stay for the entire week. It was an appealing idea since I haven’t had Thanksgiving with my immediate family since 2001.

I sat down today with the intention to buy a plane ticket. I checked out America West, and was reminded that they had become part of US Airways. I found a flight and was about to buy the ticket, when I had a feeling I shouldn’t do it. I paused, scooted my chair back from my computer and got quiet. Nope, I really felt not to buy the ticket. I sighed and got up to go to the bathroom, thinking that maybe I just wasn’t supposed to take the trip.

When I got back to my desk, there was a new email in my gmail account. It was SideStep newsletter with links to travel deals around the internet. Normally I toss them without looking, but I scrolled through mindlessly. Noticing Orbitz was having a fall flight sale I clicked over and punched in the dates and times I had just been looking at over at US Airways. It searched for a moment, before pulling up a roundtrip flight with dates and times that worked, costing almost half the price of the ticket I had been about to buy on the other airline. It was the cheapest flight I’ve ever gotten between Philly and Portland in nearly five years of flying back and forth.

I bought the ticket, without any feeling of apprehension or worry in my stomach. That sense I had been picking up on wasn’t telling me I shouldn’t go, just that if I could just wait a half hour long I would get a better price on the ticket. It’s nice when the big stuff works out in life, but somethings having the little stuff flow smoothly is just as satisfying.