To not IM New Zealand..

Yes once again I have let that little no fun, rational, money saving, life is supposed to be finishing college, get a real job, living in the same small town, marry a girl, pop out 1.5 kids, put them through college before having an MI and dying in your own excrement in a nursing home, side win. Why? Mainlly the reason of I don't want to owe my credit card companies half my yearly salary...especially in my last year and a half of college.The other is despite the fact I found a good deal at www.endurancesportstravel.com for a flight from LAX to Auckland with a cheap travel package to Taupo, I'm not sure if the fare covers the flight back from Auckland and rather than spend $3,000 at the airport Amazing race style trying to get a flight back so I don't miss more classes, I have decided to let my no fun side win ( bringing its record to 10001-2-0). But I have not given up on doing IM New Zealand Completely ....In 2010 your ass is grass Taupo. So it looks like I will be among the wildabeasts trying to get in to the 2008 versions of IM Kentucky, or IM Florida depending on how much I have saved up. If I get a winning lotto ticket maybe Taupo could happen but its odds are the exact same as me winning the powerball. What sort of makes this whole situation sort of sad is the fact that except for two days in Canada at age 18 months. I have never been off U.S. soil. ( The week in St. Croix doesn't count because The Virgin Islands are a U.S. territory ( which is one baby step below full blown state.) and I would really like to travel ( and not with the military in which I would see interesting places meet new people, kill them or get killed by them...let's face it Baghdad is a"hot spot" but not for tourism right now...give it 10 years and a couple more puppet regimes). Another option is sponsorship. I have a profile started with USAT and this fall I will be sending out letters for sponsorship. Having tried once to ask my current company to sponsor one of my endeavors ( in which I was told by my market manager...we sponsor events to try to promote our name not individual athletes....I might go straight to the honcho in marketing this time around.) So I will find away to get more funding for my 2008 racing season but IM New Zealand as tempting as it is and as much as it is calling out "do it! DO IT!" I will most likely put on hold unless of course I get sponsored, win the lotto, become one of those inspirational stories on NBC Ironman coverage ( you known one of those profiles that gets you ready to fight the world like the John Blais profile posted, or Team Hoyt, what could be better for the CT local media than a somewhat poor Waterbury/Wolcott kid traveling half a world away to do an Ironman.) or a really sick and awesome combo of the 3. Even as I sit here desptie my reason screaming out for me to let this silly idea die I just can't let it rest. Somebody post something, either tell me to do it or smack me back to life in the suburbs reality , because the hand is going to the credit card and I'm throwing it in a block of ice. to avoid temptation. Of Note if I was crazy, rich, foolish....insert adjective here to do it...is there any way we could get a HEAT tent for this thing?