I used to love business travel. I used to travel once a month to pretty cool cities that I always wanted to see. I've been to New York, Chicago, LA, Dallas, Las Vegas...and to places I never was interested in like Little Rock. Business travel isn't vacation travel--it gets old pretty fast. I think when you are younger, single and have no kids it's a great way to see the US, even the world. I don't travel anymore...and I don't miss it. Sure it's exciting at first but then it starts to get old. The airports all look the same. The rush of business travelers, the harried vacationers, the rush. You have packing down to exactly what you need to wear for meetings and maybe a different top for going out. I once travelled to Orlando with just the art folio bag and my laptop backpack. I wore the same outfit flying out as I did flying home. My business clothes were in the folio.
You know when you have to be at the airport but before 9/11 you could get there as close to boarding as possible. After the heightened security I would make sure to wear slip on shoes, have my license in my backpocket and my boarding pass printed out. And I'd travel with as little as possible. Again, it's not vacation travel.
Now that I'm married with a son, I'm thankful I don't have to do it as much. I was never afraid to fly before but it's different now--travelling alone makes you paranoid. You start to look around the cabin and think--I really don't want to die with a bunch of strangers. Terrible thought, I know! I think that's why I understood what was going on in the movie, 'Lost in Translation' (if I think I got it right). There is a sense of being on autopilot that gets depressing even if you are staying in a 5 star hotel in a great city--especially if you travel alone.
I have a business travel ritual that I follow to this day. Thank God for the safe flight when we land, get to the hotel and order a club sandwich. Every hotel has a club sandwich and you can't make them bad. I always have them with fries. I usually leave CNN on while I check email. Those things make me feel better, safer in a routine. True comfort food! (BTW, the best club sandwich I ever had was just this past weekend at the Marriott Renaissance in Las Vegas. YUM!)
I respect people who have to do it all the time. There was an article in USA Today that talks about how frequent business travel affects personal lives--how can it not? http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/2006-06-21-road-warriors-usat_x.htm
The issue is that most people that travel for business a lot are in positions that require them to do so...hopefully they are compensated pretty well because they sacrifice personal time to do it. You can't complain about a spouse that travels frequently if it pays the bills--there is always a tradeoff--but that's a whole other blog.
I have never done any international business travel (I don't count Toronto). If I ever have to it will be exciting, but right now I like being close to home. I can't get much closer. I telecommute full time.
No comments:
Post a Comment