Government shutdown panic

So have any of you been keeping up on the whole government shutdown talk?? I'm scheduled to attend a conference for work next week, and I'm more than a little frustrated iwth the lack of concrete guidance, not to mention freaking out about the possibility of being furloughed. I am NOT a fan of this mandatory LWOP bullshit... OR the possibility of not getting compensated after the whole thing is over. (TOTAL bullshit) I wouldn't be so upset if I didn't have a non-refundable (although thankfully reschedulable for one time with no fee) ticket to swim with dophins in Orlando on Sunday. So depending on what happens in the next few hours, there are a few scenarios of what might happen. Here are the options:

Option 1 - Congress agrees on something or they pass another temporary CRA sometime in the next few hours and life continues as usual. I get to see dolphins. Yay.

Option 2 - Right now, the conference schedulers have officially canceled Monday's session, but haven't made a decision on the rest of the week yet. If by the end of today I receive instructions from my Commander to cancel my orders, I will cancel all my reservations and not go to Orlando, even if the gov ends up NOT shutting down and the conference is still a go in Orlando, at which point I will be pissed because I will have to reschedule my dolphin swim for who knows when and get my ass to Orlando on my own dime. And breathe...

Option 3 - If I DON'T hear anything about canceling orders, and by the end of today the conference is still tentatively a go for next week, I will get on the plane tomorrow morning and go to Orlando. Even if I have to pay for the hotel myself and turn around and come back on Tuesday. My time won't be reimbursed, but the plane ticket is already paid for and according to the lawyers, I would not be held responsible for paying it back.

Option 4 - No matter the guidance, I reschedule my flight for Monday (the new official travel day for the conference) and rearrange my hotel reservations to arrive on Monday instead of Saturday. Thus giving Congress the weekend to resolve the budget and me a little more time to decide on cancelations. But that means I'd still have to reschedule the dolphins and go to Orlando on my own sometime in the next 12 months (I have to notify of the intent to reschedule no later than COB Sunday - 2p.m. PST).Unless an agreement isn't decided on by Saturday though, in which case the conference will automatically be canceled/rescheduled and I'll hopefully be able to get a time during the rescheduled conference for my date with the dolphins.

Option 5 - the conference schedulers stop yanking us around and just make the decision to reschedule the conference already. I cancel my travel plans and reschedule the dolphins during the new conference dates.

Clearly options 1 (although highly unlikely) and 4/5 are preferred, but all this hinges on guidance that has yet to be announced. It's just a total mess and there's no way I can resemble anything like productive with this kind of uncertainty looming overhead. This not knowing bullshit is painful...

 

slr