The Crazy Busy Weekly Recap
It’s Sunday morning here in the OC (which no one who lives here actually calls it) and that means it is time for the weekly recap here at its new date (Sundays). My former Sunday morning Around Prior2Boarding post has moved to Saturday mornings.
I’m looking out at a hazy February day that will hopefully burn into a beautiful afternoon. Beautiful is the minimum I will tolerate because I’m heading to Disneyland as soon as I finish my daily commitments!
I’m caught up in the swirl of crazy busy again. There is no denying that.
This is my third Sunday morning in a row to wake up in a hotel room after a weekend of meetings and other volunteer activities – and it’s my fifth weekend in a row to spend at least part of it in a hotel (or other out-of-town accommodations). And all this has been in between a lot of weekday client travel. some change in my professional life, and an increased first-of-the-year project load.
I’m tired.
And yet, I’m going to keep pushing through… because next weekend is Mardi Gras – and yes, I’ll be in the Big Easy in the thick of it all!
But after that, I am forcing myself to stay home for at least one weekend before hitting the road again.
I just have to.
It means I’m not fully utilizing the two systemwide upgrades I hoard each year for my birthday weekend (February 21, just in case you want to get me a present). For me, birthdays have traditionally meant short weekend trips to London. Or Paris. Or Istanbul. This year it will be errands and maybe a bit of time with friends at home, if I’m lucky! I don’t have a choice, if I want to be sane – after that weekend, I start a three week “not at home hardly at all” cycle that will be hell on my sleep schedule, my body, my relationships, and my sanity. It’s coming at me like a freight train so I need to brace for it.
My poor homestead is definitely neglected. I’ve been doing that late night laundry thing where I pack my suitcase straight out of the dryer at 5 am. Until Wednesday this week, I was down to only pantry staples for groceries. And I’m getting close to three weeks without a car (it looks like Monday pm or Tuesday am will be when I finally get it back). I am pretty sure there is still a box of Christmas ornaments sitting by the back door waiting to be carried out to the garage at the first opportunity that I am home and it’s not dark or wet or freezing cold out. (Detached dirt floor garage means I do not go out there when I might encounter creepy crawly things that lurk in the corners!)
For some reason, I always get to January and February and I burn myself out on travel early in the year. And then I wonder why that by May, I don’t even want to look at an airplane for a couple of months. Two decades of doing this and yet I still haven’t changed the pattern.
*sigh*
All of this is a preface to my apology for not keeping up with my daily posting the last couple of weeks. Its been difficult to find the self discipline when I’ve been flying on planes that don’t have wifi, working until midnight with teenagers, or trying to live exclusively on UberX transport. Add to that a laptop battery that suddenly wants to shut off after an hour of working and it’s a recipe for a connectivity disaster. I need to figure this out – stat – because my normal routine is off balance and I’m feeling it.
Yikes.
I did manage to carve out some time regardless to write a bit….
I shared my thoughts on the demise of Radio Shack, a local Fort Worth firm that was part of the fabric of my youth.
I listed 12 things to do while traveling to promote travel life balance. I did a few of these during the course of the week, including a couple of hours of shopping at the new outlet mall near Chicago O’Hare. (I’m pretty happy with that use of my time – I found a couple of new “wear to client” pieces and I got my Mardi Gras gown, something I should not have waited until ten days prior to be searching for!)
And I talked about perception versus reality at popular tourist destinations. (One takeaway? Size matters.)
I won’t make any promises about what I post this week other than I’m going for daily… but I’ve got a backlog of things to write about (Komodo dragons, sleeping with teenagers, solo cruising) so I’m sure it will be interesting. And then there is that stockpile of hotel reviews I’ve been meaning to wade through.
Have a fabulous week. I’ll be thinking of you all as I take a spin on the Madhatter’s teacups this afternoon in Anaheim. (Photos to be posted on my Instagram feed if you want to play along….)
xoxo
