Rethinking the Business Trip

There's something very unappealing about traveling with your boss. Particularly when your boss has forgotten his cell phone and asks if he can use yours to call his wife, his son, his other son. Every day of the trip. The plot thickens when it is revealed that said boss has also neglected to bring his laptop. I'm sorry, I just hallucinated. Did you really come on a BUSINESS TRIP without your computer or cell phone? The kicker was that he had purposely not brought the lappy. Planned on shooting from the hip for our consulting visit, as he usually does and is quite capable of. But still, why wouldn't you bring it just in case? And so I was not surprised at all when in the middle of one of our meetings with the client he asked me to pull up some files on my computer. He then took over the use of my computer for the day, stopping only once when it crashed and the file he had been working on was lost. He was frustrated, looking to me to fix it because it was my computer, but seriously, it wasn't my fault he didn't save it.

This week's trip was to North Carolina, and the weather was quite stormy. This really only bothered me for the sake of the plane rides. Coming into Charlotte, it was incredibly windy. So it was awesome that we had to then jump on an even tinier plane to Asheville. The woman sitting across from me leaned over and said, "This flight always gets really bad. Just warning you." She then preceded to tell me that her daughter, seated next to me, tended to get sick on planes. Of course, my track record in that department isn't exactly clean, so I counted it a blessing that neither of us had thrown up when the plane landed. The flights home were only tainted by a lightning storm delay and an Orlando fan sporting the full garb (jersey, hat, etc) on his way to last night's game. There we all were. A flight full of Clevelanders. Already upset from being stuck on the runway. And so we glared at him. We threw things at him. (We didn't really, but I'm sure we all felt a certain amount of IN YOUR FACE when the Cavs pulled off the win)

The highlight of any business trip is always the food. People are almost giddy over the decisions of where to eat. And even though I love business meals, if for no other reason than their free-ness (and the fact that everyone can lighten up and talk about things other than the project/deal/contract), sometimes I wish they didn't take so long. Business dinners. They last, like clockwork, three hours. Everyone starts with drinks, mostly beer. Then the appetizers come out. You order your dinner, someone makes a decision about which bottle of wine to select, and even when everyone has finished the last bite, you're still not done. Because there is dessert, followed closely by coffee. It's quite a production, fun and filling, but considering that I don't drink beer, wine, or coffee, sometimes I end up feeling like I'm stuck there for absolutely no reason. Maybe I can work out some sort of arrangement...come late and skip out early?

On this particular trip I got to know several new co-workers, two of them women who have raised children while working full time. They each told of leaving their first child at day care, how they cried to do it, and can still make themselves cry if they think about it. How they frequently survey their children, asking if they felt at all slighted by their mothers working. Of course, these women are wonderful mothers, and I highly doubt their children harbor any ill will. But I do find it interesting that when I talk to women who have always worked full time, they all share at least some amount of guilt, sadness, and regret. I'm not saying women should never work, and I'm certainly not putting down anyone who does, because I believe first and foremost that families need to do what is right for them and their circumstances, but I'm saying that for me, I just don't think I could do it. If I was lucky enough to be raising a baby, I would stay home.

Enough about that. Really, I hate that I never have time to write anymore, so I'll quickly mention a few recent happenings. 1) Round two at Cedar Point. Even staying away from the highest thrill rides, I still ended up as sore as can be just from clinging to the car/tracks. Honestly, no matter how many belts and bars are secured across your lap, you still feel like you're going to fall right out. And so I cling on for dear life...and end up with sore legs. And possibly a pulled muscle. 2) Round two in Pittsburgh. I enjoyed another fabulous weekend in Pitt with M and some of his family. Pittsburgh is an unbelivably beautiful city. 3) I am a new aunt. Beautiful baby Everest is just that...beautiful. Granted I was sure he would be a girl, and smaller, and born a week earlier.....so I totally lost the baby contest. But no matter. "At first I wanted a girl so I could call her [Tali]. But I wouldn't trade baby [Everest] for a million girls."