Practicality... overrated or completely necessary?

I have an addiction. A BIG one. It's all I can think about a lot of the time. Everytime I pay all of my bills and have some left over I put it in my savings account, buy myself a drink, and usually dream of making more money. Shallow I know. Food, shelter, and basic survival necessities....like Netflix.... dominate my bank account. I'm fine with this. Usually. But then I get that all familiar feeling. The itch- if you will. I start to dream about it. So I start a change jar as a "If I have extra change, i'll just throw it in here and see what happens" convenience,

 ---->Which turns into a "just a few bucks every shift...." 

 To a "hmmm could probably throw a 20 in there and not miss it..." 

 To a full blown-foaming-at-the-mouth, pick up extra shifts, 

work until I can barely stand, money -grubbing fiasco.

 All to contribute to what started as a "change jar".  It's time to come clean.

I am a total and complete travel junkie.

Next to my boyfriends kisses, I never knew I would crave something more than chocolate.

Chocolate is a beautiful thing. It makes me happy when I am sad, Paying for it has never been a problem, There is always an abundance of it everywhere I go...

But travel....oh travel how you have stolen my heart.  You make my mind dance, and the corners of my mouth turn up slightly into a bright smile when I think about you. You dominate my dreams; and I wake up in a trance after one of our escapades together to Jamaica, Italy, or....dare I say it..... DISNEY WORLD.

I am a total addict. I have been very blessed in my semi-adult life to have gotten to see a few places, usually by the gracious nature of the wonderful people in my life. I have always been fairly careful- never doing more than I could, saving for a year or more in a seperate account from my regular savings account before taking a trip, turning them down if I just couldn't stomach the cost of it... I saved 5000.00 to put down on my car like I planned, still have 1200.00 in a savings account and add to it regularly, always pay my bills on time, live fairly frugally but don't feel deprived of getting to be fairly social.....why am I defending myself? Because Im SICK of being practical.

Ugh. I hate it. I love it in the sense that I can take care of myself, and I'm arrogant enough to REALLY enjoy that, but other than that I just hate it.  I couldn't be irresponsible financially if I tried...i just don't have it in me. Im way to OCD. But sometimes I get so sick of not being like others my age and just jet-setting and "seeing what happens.". On that note, I have done some soul-searching lately, and decided after much back and forth tugging and number crunching and trying to talk myself out of it.....for 5 years....that (pardon my french) Im going to f*ckin Disney World.

Now....Im going to Chicago in July, but thanks to Jon's new Honda Civic that gets killer gas mileage (Thank you Scott and Paula) and our gracious friends Chase and Diandra, we will be driving there cheaply,eating lots of meals in-home, and staying for free. While we will definitely be exploring the city and hitting the famous haunts i.e. Cubs Game, Lake Michigan, and a Lunch/Dinner Cruise from Navy Pier, it should be fairly inexpensive. Good for me because as aforementioned- I'm a travel junkie but I'm also stingy, Good for Jon because he's a downright Jew, and has an important piece of jewelry to pay for sometime THIS YEAR.

These were our plans.Well.....introduce the lovely Merric and Alisha into the mix.

Meet Alisha: Gorgeous, funny,  thoughtful, my "Monday Fun-day" and girl date companion;

AND very good at "that's what she said" jokes... (yes Im flattering her- soon you will see why...)  whose parents own part of a resort on DISNEY PROPERTY. and-get this-she gets to stay there, with pals, FOR FREE.  I am not completely shallow- we were already very good friends before I realized she wasn't just awesome- but came with perks.

Now meet Merric-

Also very pretty, silly,so  fun to be around, dating one of my favorite men ever, 

and looks like Erin from the Office. (I'm sorry...I had to...)

She is a lucky bizzle who got to work there. and gets in for free (insert knife into my heart) BUT- can also get in friends for free for 5 days. Oh.    My.   God.  

Yes. you heard me. I didn;t know either of these things until after I voiced that I would go to Disney World, by myself  if I had to cut out my own kidney- Aron Ralston style, sell it on the black market, and get a tattoo on my face. I don't know what those have to do with each other. Its just really damn dramatic.

Then I hear these two things, Then get this, Mark (Merric's boo and my buddy) says he's in.  SCORE. and. after begging and pleading, LITERALLY ALMOST TEARY-EYED, and swearing I'd pay for us both (even though he won't let me) Jon agrees. If this works out financially as cheap as it could- he is totally in as well.   I am a happy, happy. girl. I now am contributing to my Disney Jar. It hasn't taken precedence over anything else yet, I am still keeping up with my regular savings account, but I've gotta say....I can see myself eating alot of Ramen if it means saving on groceries....and going to Disney ;)

So, I ask you a question, is it completely impractical for me to be traveling instead of saving for a house instead? or something along those lines? We both have new vehicles, my payments aren't a problem, I have $$ in a separate account and my credit card balance is basically nothing. We have no debt, and live in a shoebox but are happy with it. We will have a wedding- but plan on having a lengthy engagement to put money back to put twoards it, and we don't plan on having kids soon-so we don't really need a house... but should a house be what we should be concentrating on? Am I being impractical....or simply doing what I can when I can; because I can? I'll be straight with you- I'm going to go no matter what the feedback is-haha; but your advice honestly is welcomed and appreciated. :)