Forced, FORCED, I tell you

Got an urgent email from the New England Aquarium a couple weeks ago - one of my vet colleagues had noticed that the Morris Animal Foundation has a call out for wildlife health research grants, deadline November 11, and she had realized that our uber-awesome Kemp's ridley sea turtle project might be a perfect match. The only catch: She's got no time to write the grant herself (because she is pursuing our other uber-awesome grant idea... to study whales in the Bahamas. yeah baby.). So she asked: would I be willing to clear my entire October to spend four weeks working full-time writing an enormously complicated grant for the Morris Animal Foundation?

The catch: That's just when I was supposed to be going to Rio, and I'd already booked my ticket. I can't write the grant from Rio; there's no internet where I was planning to stay, and plus I'll need hands-on access to the English-language marine biology journals (I don't have online access right now and have to go to actual physical libraries, like I used to in the Stone Age).

Dang. Got to move the ticket.

After a full hour on the phone with two rather traumatized American Airlines agents, I established the following:
- I can't move my ticket to later in November because the US flights are all booked up because of Thanksgiving.
- I can't move it to December, January or February... because those are "high season" for American Airlines, because Carnaval almost always falls in February. My ticket's a low-season ticket.
- Also can't rebook for June... apparently that's also high season... who knew. That rules out the June music festival that I've been wanting to see.
- Apparently I'd booked the ticket in July. Dang. That means I have to rebook before July 2012.

So I had to rebook the ticket for March, April or May... when all the blocos and escolas will be on hiatus. Double dang.

I was getting kind of depressed. It was already enough of a bummer that I might have to miss the awesome November trip I'd had planned, and miss hanging out in Rio with my Lions buddies Tanya and Chris...and now I was also going to miss the entire Carnaval season too, and miss all the escolas and blocos. DAMMIT. Stupid grant.

But I knew the sea turtle grant was a really great idea, plus, of course, there were the turtles themselves to think of. The Kemp's are the most endangered of the sea turtles, and they are in such trouble now - and after the Gulf oil spill especially. There's only a few thousand Kemp's in the whole world and almost all of them had been in the Gulf during the oil spill. Due to a trick of geography and currents, a few hundred of the juveniles usually get a bit lost in the fall and end up washing up on Cape Cod, stunned by the cold water, and end up at the New England Aquarium, and though the vet staff is incredible we do lose a few dozen of them, if If we could save even just a couple more of our cold-stunned Kemp's... it would be worth it, truth be told. So in the Bigger-Picture Department, just maybe I could give up a Carnaval season to help save a species?

I was a hair away from booking a rather depressing May trip when I suddenly thought: Carnaval is "almost always" in February. But almost always isn't always, right? As the American agent was about five seconds away from her final click to book my May trip, I pulled up a new web page, googled "Carnaval dates 2011 Rio de Janeiro" and instantly got a series of hits that all said: Carnaval in 2011 falls in March 4-8. In American Airlines' low season!!! The first time in a decade that it's been that late!

I yelled, "STOP EVERYTHING! WE'RE REBOOKING EVERYTHING FOR MARCH!" I was so excited I dropped the phone, lost the call and had to call back and re-explain it all to a second agent who had no idea what I was talking about about this Rio Carnaval thing, but obediently started booking me a flight. She was puzzled to find that almost all flights to Rio were mysteriously booked up on March 1, 2, 3 and 4. "Hm, that's odd for low season, isn't it?" she said, while I was still yelling "CARNAVAL IS IN MARCH THIS YEAR! CARNAVAL IS IN MARCH!" Miraculously, she found me just about the last free seat down (on March 1), and a seat back on March 18, and I grabbed it. YEAH!!!

I wrote to the Aquarium to try to explain that I had been forced, forced I tell you, to book a three-week vacation to Rio for Carnaval, just when I was supposed to be working full-time for them and was supposed to be setting up our new half-million-dollar lab. But hey. They'd asked me to clear time for the sea turtle grant, right?

So while still being a bit bummed about not being there with Tanya and Chris - oh yeah, CARNAVAL! I'll get to see one more Carnaval! I am so thrilled. I immediately wrote to one of my British friends, who'll be there the same time, and he said a bunch of the Bloco X Germans were coming too. Wrote to Dudu Fuentes, too, and he said he & Olivia would be awaiting me "with kisses" for Carnaval! I'll get to see Banga's 2011 Carnaval parade! Whee!!! I think this is going to be my fifth Rio Carnaval in a row, or is it the 6th? Oh yes, I am a lucky lucky girl.