Late this afternoon I will wing it up to NYC for a full day of business chatter at a large and prestigious University someplace way up in the numbered streets. I will stay at a hotel that is across a big bridge from this university, and, knowing me, will spend my time not doing anything even remotely fun, because that would require effort and planning, and a dash of potential danger, and I do not feel up to facing any of these things on on my own. This solo flight to the Big Apple will be a dash up, a frenzy of business, very likely one looong evening alone, and then a dash back.
In some ways I enjoy traveling (travelling? Which is the correct spelling please?). I enjoy the "oooh, look at me I've got a computer bag and so I must be someone who has a JOB that means I have to TRAVEL and that seems muy importante and very much like I'm really DOING something with my career" until I look around me at all the other people waiting at the gate and on the (small) plane and realize that they they too carry black rollie bags stuffed full of muy importante items for their own business travel which in all likelihood is mucho mas importante than mine, at which point I get over myself in a hurry.
I also enjoy chatting up the people sitting next to me on the (small) plane, because sometimes you meet the most interesting folks, and the chatting helps pass the time between bouts of turbulence. For instance, one time I sat next to a woman who was the manager of a historical site out in Eastern North Carolina, and she was going to Hartford for a conference on influential African-American women in history, which sounded pretty interesting, and, of course, muy importante. We talked for the whole 90-minute flight, and I felt like I'd really made good use of that time by listening to her and secretly admiring her lovely skin and taste in clothing.
I also enjoy getting TO my destination and settling in and looking at the scenery and watching the local news and hearing the accents and immersing myself for a little while in someone else's world. I fancy that by learning who's having the best furniture sale and what ball players are getting traded and where the traffic tie-ups are I will become a little more cosmopolitan, a little more at ease with that particular corner of the earth.
Yes, there are tiny bright spots in the travel; smidgens of things to look forward to that might cast a glint of light on a spot of this world about which I know nothing.
But, I confess, I do NOT care for the actual TRAVEL part of business travel at all. I don't care for the anxious trip to the airport, the checking of clocks and elapsed time and the berating of the traffic that always, always, seems to clutter up the roads I want to use. I do not care for the patting of pockets to be sure the money is still there, or the checking and rechecking of bags and items to ensure that the ticket remains where I know I put it and that the directions to the hotel(that by now I've memorized I've looked at it so many time) still say the same thing they did the last dozen times I've checked. I do not like not knowing where I'm going. I do not like new-to-me airports. I do not like turbulance or stale pretzels or seatmates with bad breath or the moments of touchdown. I do not like being away from home.
Even though I'm only going to be gone for 2 nights and a day, I will miss my children and my husband and my routine and my comfortable wee life, that, while perhaps not muy importante to anyone else, make up the rhythm of who I am and consist of everything that's really and truly, muy extra grande importante to me.
And yet, I will go, and hope that the glint of something new will be a shiny enough distraction to keep away the "missing" part.
If that doesn't do it, then the 9 hours of meetings tomorrow probably will.
=========================
All right - I KNOW this wasn't funny or amusing at all. Sorry. Because I feel it's my duty to provide SOMETHING amusing with almost every post, why not go here or here and have a snarky little giggle or two?
It's the least I can do on this rainy Monday morning.
In some ways I enjoy traveling (travelling? Which is the correct spelling please?). I enjoy the "oooh, look at me I've got a computer bag and so I must be someone who has a JOB that means I have to TRAVEL and that seems muy importante and very much like I'm really DOING something with my career" until I look around me at all the other people waiting at the gate and on the (small) plane and realize that they they too carry black rollie bags stuffed full of muy importante items for their own business travel which in all likelihood is mucho mas importante than mine, at which point I get over myself in a hurry.
I also enjoy chatting up the people sitting next to me on the (small) plane, because sometimes you meet the most interesting folks, and the chatting helps pass the time between bouts of turbulence. For instance, one time I sat next to a woman who was the manager of a historical site out in Eastern North Carolina, and she was going to Hartford for a conference on influential African-American women in history, which sounded pretty interesting, and, of course, muy importante. We talked for the whole 90-minute flight, and I felt like I'd really made good use of that time by listening to her and secretly admiring her lovely skin and taste in clothing.
I also enjoy getting TO my destination and settling in and looking at the scenery and watching the local news and hearing the accents and immersing myself for a little while in someone else's world. I fancy that by learning who's having the best furniture sale and what ball players are getting traded and where the traffic tie-ups are I will become a little more cosmopolitan, a little more at ease with that particular corner of the earth.
Yes, there are tiny bright spots in the travel; smidgens of things to look forward to that might cast a glint of light on a spot of this world about which I know nothing.
But, I confess, I do NOT care for the actual TRAVEL part of business travel at all. I don't care for the anxious trip to the airport, the checking of clocks and elapsed time and the berating of the traffic that always, always, seems to clutter up the roads I want to use. I do not care for the patting of pockets to be sure the money is still there, or the checking and rechecking of bags and items to ensure that the ticket remains where I know I put it and that the directions to the hotel(that by now I've memorized I've looked at it so many time) still say the same thing they did the last dozen times I've checked. I do not like not knowing where I'm going. I do not like new-to-me airports. I do not like turbulance or stale pretzels or seatmates with bad breath or the moments of touchdown. I do not like being away from home.
Even though I'm only going to be gone for 2 nights and a day, I will miss my children and my husband and my routine and my comfortable wee life, that, while perhaps not muy importante to anyone else, make up the rhythm of who I am and consist of everything that's really and truly, muy extra grande importante to me.
And yet, I will go, and hope that the glint of something new will be a shiny enough distraction to keep away the "missing" part.
If that doesn't do it, then the 9 hours of meetings tomorrow probably will.
=========================
All right - I KNOW this wasn't funny or amusing at all. Sorry. Because I feel it's my duty to provide SOMETHING amusing with almost every post, why not go here or here and have a snarky little giggle or two?
It's the least I can do on this rainy Monday morning.
========================
Oh, and if you're from East Haddam and have stopped by this blog - gimme a hint of who you are, 'kay? Leave a comment or something?
8 comments:
Have a great trip! It's 'traveling' though I ALWAYS want to spell it with 2 L's. Same with marveling, etc. Just habit. But Spellcheck always tells me I'm wrong. Yet I'm too lazy to look it up in the dictionary to see if it's just a matter of preference.
Signed,
She Who Is Not From Haddam
Erica-
Yeesh - I've been doing it wrong all these years. I say we rally a dissent and change it to the 2 ell method.
Oh, and as per my e-mail response: I'm looking for the East Haddamite, not anybody from over the river near Tylerville. :>
Neil - I do feel lucky! Hmm, maybe tomorrow I'll get a chacne to have a picture made with the "fat man walking" who's almost ath the end of his journey across the US. He'll be right in front of my hotel tomorrow night!
I'm not from Haddam AND I don't think you have to be funny all the time. Enjoy your time away!
WN - But don't you wish you WERE from there? :>
As for the trip - will do. It's NYC, after all!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the occasional business travel. Not the client meetings....that absolutely sucks. But I LOVE having a hotel room all to myself, and being able to do whatever I want (read, knit, watch Everybody Loves Raymond re-runs). No husband, no 4-year-old, no litterbox, no clutter. Just me in a clean, uncluttered room with tons of pillows and free shower gel. Enjoy your trip!!!
I keep requesting a trip to our main office (Chicago! How cool would that be?!); my boss continues to send me to Greensboro and Charlotte! (Not as fun).
Enjoy your trip!
Wish I could have met you and we could have had SO MUCH FUN just like London a couple years back...You could get picked up on by gorgeous African men, and I could pretend I was cool and dancing to a cover band playing grung in the scary irish pub that doubled as the breakfast lounge...stale cigarettes and spilled guiness smells and all...how do you want your eggs? Hey, whatever happened to lets do this every year???? If I make it to Orlando this fall for BUDGET meetings, wanna road trip with me? If I flew to you, could we road trip to the burg? wanna? huh? wanna? huh?
xxxooo
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