A Quick Stop For History

My Philly hotel was right by Valley Forge National Park and we had a short drive yesterday, so my presenter and I went to check it out:Inside Washington Memorial Chapel.

Some replica huts like the ones the soldiers stayed in during their winter encampment. Our wonderful guide assured us, no one died by freezing in these--they are quite cozy.

Washington's headquarters. Looks posh, but the guide assured us, it was much colder (before central heating was installed in the 1930's) than the cabins. It's the actual building he rented during the winter encampment. The kitchens and stables attached to the house are still standing as well!

It's great when I get a chance to actually take advantage of being in places I'd never go otherwise. Once we arrived in Bethlehem, Kathleen and I had a great dinner at Bethlehem Brew Works (as per Kelly's suggestion via the BER food blog), another great place that I'd never have known about before. We're off tonight to drive up into the hills (don't call them mountains) of Pennsylvania.

Oh, and I got almost 8 hours of sleep last night... Go me!

Hitting the BER Wall

Five more months...

It's a long time when you think about it. The problem that one runs into with working a crazy schedule like mine is complete and utter burn out. Sleep deprivation kicks in, time zone changes start wearing on you, and the sight of one more pathetic hotel breakfast buffet turns your stomach. I was ready to get back on the road again after the holidays, but for whatever reason, I didn't ever manage to adjust to the central time zone. Six hours of sleep a night was a good day, and soon enough I was living on caffeine. I can manage this lifestyle for a week, but that's the limit. I need to find a way to make it through to the end while being able to enjoy myself still.

The worst part of all of it though is the pressure of weekends. When I'm home, I want to do everything. I want to go to yoga, I need to get my laundry done, I want to see friends, I want to get my hair cut by my favorite stylist, I need to repack, I want to repack oh so perfectly, I want to go out and have a beer for a friend's birthday. But instead I tend to mess it up--the haircut appointment, arriving too late for a class, falling asleep suddenly (for once) at the most inopportune moment after flopping down on my bed for 5 minutes.

Having two lives is ridiculous, yet that's what I've got. I have on-the-road me, who simply lives out of a suitcase and deals with the same routine day to day, splashing in some fun little excitements as much as I can along the way. Then there is at-home me, who really just wants to relax, but has all of the minutia of a real life to deal with: opening mail, doing laundry, running errands, renewing car tabs, seeing people I don't get to see regularly any more... etc. etc.

It's almost more exhausting being home than being on the road. This wouldn't be the case if I didn't have to fly trans-continental every single time I came home. But even when I fly to Chicago or Texas, I end up leaving before 11:30am on Sunday. Luckily, this next weekend I'm in New Orleans, and while that doesn't sound like a restful weekend to some... it's going to be full of long, sleeping-in-all-day mornings since we have three whole days to play and a swanky hotel to live it up in. AND I'm not going to lose three hours and gain them back again. I might swap one hour back and forth, but that's nothing. This is why stayovers are crucial to my life, and yet a hindrance to it. The following weekend, I get to pray that my car passes an emission test so that the tabs can be renewed, since this is the only time I can get to it.

It's an interesting life, and one that you have to be prepared to plan ahead for. Luckily, I'm looking forward to finishing up in May and starting out anew on a path to figure out what will come my way.

Fashion From a Small Suitcase

With my extremely cramped packing job this last week, I had a limited work wardrobe, yet managed to have three different looks in total, plus my typical traveling outfit of jeans, t-shirt, and cardigan. This is why I love dresses so much and pack them when I’m trying to be really simple. The pink and black dress is jersey and supremely comfortable while the black and white check dress has more flair and fun (thank you Target!) and works perfectly with layering, either underneath or over the top. I utilized my growing headband collection to keep my shaggy hair out of the way until I could get it cut. It turns out that cutting my hair short has caused multiple presenters to comment on my “great style.” In truth, my clothes are not much different from last year, but I think having a style other than long straight hair pulled back in a ponytail is giving the outfits an edge.

Speaking of haircuts, I managed to botch my haircut appointment this weekend, again! I’d blown it over Christmas break by forgetting to book the appointment 3 weeks out, and then discovering my hairstylist at Ten Pachi was on vacation the whole week after Christmas, exactly when I needed the cut anyways. So I attempted to book an appointment for this Saturday, January 9^th. Only something happened with my booking (undoubtedly my stupid mistake) and I booked it for January 12^th, a day when I’ll be somewhere in Pennsylvania. So I had to find a new appointment to tame the shaggy monster on my head and ended up at the AVEDA institute in Capital hill, where I got a really decent cut for almost nothing! However, I have booked myself an appointment with Rosie at Ten Pachi for the February break (5 weeks ahead) and have plans on searching for one of those haircutting razors to be able to take some of the bulk out of the back of my hair as it grows out over a 6 week cycle. Oh the things one does to have short hair…I miss the ponytails that I used to have, and their ease for working out especially since fan around-the-head headband doesn’t work for my haircut because it’s so short in the back. Last week I was working out with my sparkly rhinestone headband… I got some funny looks. One of these days I’ll start growing it out, but for now I really like it.The gorillapod is definitely fun to work with. Although I’ve gotten some funny looks from people as I set up the pink, bubble-shaped camera stand and then run over to stand with a stupid look on my face and a hand on my hip, it’s made taking these pictures super easy (even if I did crop out my shoes in one of the photos...).

It's a Love/Hate Relationship

I love my job when everything just flows: my packing is just right, I have a direct flight and get to talk to a fun person, and the routine becomes a comfortable and reliable rhythm in my life.

I hate my job when every other aspect of my real life gets submerged: haircut appointments become hard to manage, doctors appointments are impossible to get to before February, and the simplest basic scheduling issues on a weekend become semi-catastrophic because I'm only in town 36hours.

...but I'm going to great places soon enough: Allentown, DC, NOLA... And I'll be back to a normal life by July. Gotta enjoy the crazy while it's here.

A Penny for Your Thoughts

Commenters, solve my moral conundrum:

If I resolved to drink less soda a week ago, will I potentially put myself on the road to ruin by treating myself to a can of diet coke today on my flight?

Packing it Away

I like to think that over the last year and a half, I've become a pretty good packer. I tested myself this week, and still want to find a way to get my bags lighter. I'm on a 4-day week out-and-back, so my challenge to myself was to travel with only my small work carryon bag and not bring an additional suitcase for my clothes and sundries. I think I managed it quite well, and because I know you're DYING to know... I'll map it out for you.

The Bag:A Swiss Army rolling briefcase with 4 compartments, purchased at Costco last year at the start of my BER adventure.

The Work Stuff:
Ahhh, yes. The tech case. The 48.5lb object between me a complete carry-on heaven.

The traveling office:My file folder contains all my registration and paperwork paraphenaila while the pencil case carries the various office materials one needs whether one is in Seattle or Mobile, AL (the stapler is a fave with TSA, to some agents it resembles a box cutter). Then there is all of the GPS electronics. In order to streamline, I put the pencil case in the tech case (now at 48.75lbs...) and put the file folder in it's usual place: the second compartment of the briefcase. The GPS cables found themselves a home in the front pocket (hereby dubbed the "cord pocket") of the briefcase while Rita herself went in a pocket of my purse for easy access.

Pocket-by-Pocket:The cord pocket--GPS cords, iPhone USB cord, AUX adapter cord for car stereo, netbook charge cord, knitting bag with NZ yarn scarf-in-progress, liquids ziplock. File folder pocket--the file folder (surprise!).

The laptop pocket (sans laptop thanks to the netbook!)--workout clothes, dirty laundry, "solids" toiletry bag, makeup bag, snack items (oatmeal and almonds). The main clothing pocket--the Wardrobe.

And what clothes does one pack for a 4-day stint where the warmest temperature is a balmy 45degrees? The following:

Work clothes:

• Black and white check dress
• Pink and black jersey dress
• Black & grey cardigans
• Black & grey tights
• Red & black belt
• Report wedges

Other clothes:

• AE boyfriend jeans
• Bonjour T-shirt and white tank top
• White turtleneck
  
• Green sneakers (workout shoe substitute attempt)
• Sleep/workout T-shirt and workout capris
• Yoga Socks (whee!)
• Scarf and Coat
• Various undergarments, socks, and whatnot

And then...

The Purse:
This I think I need to find ways to cut back on... I have a book, my moleskine, a magazine, my netbook, my knitting bag, and my phone to provide entertainment. The camera and tripod to document my travels. Wallet, pens, nail file and clippers, lipgloss, lotion bar, sunglasses, gloves, plastic silverware, meds, and vitamins. My coffee mug (a must have). My home keys (and rental car keys when applicable) and GPS. Once you have a huge purse like this, it tends to get filled...whether you need it or not, so I have to clear it out rather often.

Anyways, that's about it. I know you were on the edge of your seat waiting to find out how I do it. The real challenge will be seeing if I can do it again, in variaton for the next stint--two weeks out with a NOLA weekend in the middle. I want to get everything in my regular 21" suitcase, which I can carry on.

Dreams From a Different Bed

Sleeping in a different bed every night has it's effects, often in the form of crazy dreams. As most of you know, I've always been a rather... vivid dreamer. My imagination and subconscious seems to manage a rather convoluted set of highly justified and semi-plausible situations when I'm sleeping. I've had my fair set of BER dreams as well, with crazy registration table dramas or AV equipment malfunctions set to absurd levels. Usually these come when I'm more stressed out--before or after a large number day, when the travel logistics are more difficult than normal, or when my life just seems to be getting in the way of day to day activities.

I feel like I should be sharing some of these while I'm still having them. I had a particularly vivid dream, or rather nightmare, last night that I remember in full. Just a warning: it's definitely kind of a downer. It went like this:

I awake (in the dream) and pry my eyes apart, sighing to myself for sleeping in my contacts on a plane again. I have a full, 3-seat row on a wide body plane (3-5-3 seat configuration, one of those typical details that my brain finds so important to note) to myself and have been curled up resting. My parents and my sister are in the rows across the aisle from me. Slowly I realize that the plane's trajectory is off... We are listing heavily to the side at one moment, then jarred back to an awkward leveling off. In the dream I pull back and see the flaps of the plane, which are clearly wrong--sticking out at very weird and contradictory angles. The pilot comes on and explains, "Our navigation system appears to be malfunctioning. We are working to fix it as fast as we can. The fasten seatbelt sign has been turned on. Please return to your seats and fasten your seat belts" (Yes, I dream in airplane speak now.)

It is clear that the plane is on course to crash, soon. I remain calm, as do all of the other passengers (This is when I can tell that I am dreaming. I consciously choose to stay calm, as it is a dream, yet even then my stomach is sinking). After rocking and rolling through the flight, the risk of crashing is imminent and my stomach is rising up into my throat with fear yet my mind remains clear and calm, when suddenly everything comes back online and the plane rights itself. The passengers all begin to clap when the captain comes back on the speaker, "I need everyone to remain in their seats. ...please stop clapping... [the clapping continues] No, really, stop clapping!! [the clapping increases] YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND."

The cabin lights flash and turn to a dark-room red, as the flight attendants run down the aisles and stop in spaced-out points along the plane. The captain comes back on, "There is a terrorist act happening on this plane as we speak." The deafening applause abruptly stops as the plane starts the same turbulent movement it was experiencing before. I force myself to wake up.

The worst part of it all is that as I was laying in bed at 1:30am, I knew that I had to get on a plane this afternoon. I'm not afraid of planes, but sometimes dreams feel so real, they almost seem like a premonition. Luckily, I'm flying on regional jets today (2x2's, yay?) without my family so it can't be a psychic moment. It still took me a while to fall asleep again. Hooray for iPhone solitaire for calming my nerves!

Resolved

New Years Eve this year was great: I got to hang out with a couple of friends I haven't seen in a while and we had some low-key fun. Pies&Pints for dinner, tasty drinks, watching the fireworks on Jeff's gigantic big screen TV, Wii, Star Trek, party poppers, my sparkly headband and fleecy pants, and cake. That is my idea of a good time. Then starting the year off right: Herkimer, steel-cut oatmeal, and magically figuring out how to transfer my music to my new netbook.

Yes, that's right, my new netbook. I've been tinkering with the idea for a while now, and at a post christmas sale I went for it. The amount of ease it will add to my traveling should completely justify it. The lil'cutie is shiny, and tiny, and lighter than air! I picked it up the first time and almost threw it across the room because it weighed so little. (A part of me wanted to throw it across the room, because it is a PC, but I restrained my Mac sensibilities just this once.) It's been strange operating with two computers all the time, but it's fun feeling super techy with a stack of technology in front of me (mac, netbook, and iphone... it's like little computer Russian dolls).

Because I am resolved, on many levels, to make this year a good year. I started it off with my Christmas wish list, and the wonderful Mom who gave me what I wanted: The Joby Gorillapod Camera Tripod (better fashion photos await!), and yoga socks (which my sister insisted were "too weird" for her to purchase for me). These little, lightweight goodies along with my netbook should make the next 4-5 months more bearable.

Anyways, other than resolving to make my life easier with fancy new travel gizmos, I have three short, sweet, and purposeful resolutions that don't add to my baggage.

1. Take vitamins, because being sick 3 times in the course of 3 months suggests a vitamin C deficiency.

2. Floss. More than 2x a year.

3. Go on a soda hiatus, because 3 diet cokes in one day is too many.

Absurdly, I already blew it with these. I thought I had decided on three, but I couldn't remember one. So I assumed I had decided on two when I wrote them down on NYE. Then today, the crashing realization hit me... VITAMINS!! Probably the most important one, being as how it is the most likely to make me stop being sick constantly and thereby improve my quality of life drastically, yet it slipped my mind. Way to go me.

I want to make this the Year without Fear--the fear of getting sick, the fear of the dentist, the fear of my back going out from all my heavy luggage... and a few other more metaphysical things. We'll get around to that later. Right now, it's all about starting it off on the right foot.

A Christmas Carol

Ho Ho Ho...

Okay, screw it. I'll tell it to you straight: I hate have a fairly negative history with Christmas.

From being the adorable 2-year-old given a tiny-sized softball mitt and squishy ball, only to burst into tears and exclaim, "I don't even know what it is!" to the young adult dressing up as a goth for a practical joke/spiteful statement for my dad's side of the family (in particular my grandmother), I've often been a bit of a brat on this particular day. Every year I am a huge grinch... but I realize that being a spoilsport isn't much fun. So I've been working on my attitude and those reflex reactions that come out of nowhere to make the social constructs of Christmas more fun for myself and those around me.

I feel like putting some of this together as a way to explain why I probably will never have a collection of Christmas music or your typical giddiness as the day approaches.

Christmas Past:

Not to complain (as I realize that my attitude is mostly my reaction to situations, not from any particular person or cause), but rather to explain I'll ask the question: "Where did all of this grinching come from?"
After reflection I've decided it probably something to do with the pressure of being one of the oldest kids out of both sides of my family, the first girl (on both sides), and the total attention of waaay to many adults after being dragged around without a nap for days on end. While I've been an attention whore my whole life, something about those preliminary years definitely affected me:

As I grew up, I (young, sugar-charged, and sleep deprived) was asked to babysit and organize my younger, equally sugar-charged, sleep-deprived cousins into family Christmas pageants every year upon our arrival at grandma's, which my perfectionist nature made into much more traumatic experiences than necessary. Add in many many years worth of this constant self-inflicted pressure, my grandmother's eternal need to create drama out of nowhere, complicated relationships between my parents and other relatives, one year's explosive expletive-filled expulsion from the Hughes-family festivities, and a growing sarcastic nature and this is what you get:
Christmas Present:

A smile on my face? Me, wearing a red Christmas sweater dress? Is this really even possible?
Evidently it is. If...

I just do all my shopping online a few weeks ahead except for a few projects I can knit up on planes and a couple of little things to pick up in the last week. And then I avoid all Christmas things, even on the road where decorations and constant music are ubiquitous. Perhaps I get sick with an intense cold, and spend a couple of days on the couch, knitting and avoiding food prep (especially the exhausting cookie making). Then, on Christmas Eve, I regain my strength, finish my shopping, wrap everything, and help with the prep for dinner. Christmas day, I manage to nap a bit, work on the set up for the second party in two days, and focus on the constant clean-up and moving along of the festivities while my house is besieged by 20 other people. I make sure that the white elephant gift exchange has written rules and take control so that it moves along as quickly as possible, making it possible for everyone to leave by 9:30pm. Then I give up and escape at around 10:30pm, when a few of my cousins start clunking out "heart and soul" on the piano over, and over, and over... directly above my bedroom, and then continue for another hour.If I can still have a smile on my face after all that... I can manage Christmas.

Christmas Future:

I can remember one time in my 25 Christmases where I understood the Christmas spirit and enjoyed my family and everything about the holiday. That was the year where my immediate family was traveling in the Southwest--touring about about in an RV from Phoenix to Santa Fe (where we spent Christmas itself) and onwards to Monument Valley, Chaco Canyon, and the Grand Canyon.

So my ideal Chirstmas wish is to eventually re-create this holiday escape... I'd love to spend the holiday in a snowy place like New England, or in a German or French town with Christmas markets, somewhere warm for a tropical Christmas in sundresses, or even just escaping to a cabin by the Washington Coast or in the San Jauns. Somewhere new every other year... away from all of the traditions that make me feel the triggers of the past.But we always have to have a Big Freakin Tree.

Photo Crazed

So, every once in a while my days get easier. These two-day seminars I've had this week are probably the best thing that's ever happened on this job. Two days in a hotel... Two days in a city... Every other night without travel... Seriously. This is what I think of as the height of luxury.

So I'm posting photos to my flickr page. I get really bad about doing this on a regular basis. Also, I realize that my first couple blocks of photos to put up are all from July... (Fairbanks! Wallace Falls Hike!) and it will continue all the way through to yesterday's adventure to the St Louis Gateway arch. The hotel connection can only move so fast, and I have a few things I want to get to today in St. Louis before flying out (perhaps a photo at the airport a la George Clooney?!?!), so we'll see how far I can get.

I have a lot of time ahead of me over break though, and while much of it will be filled with friends, family, and holiday fun, I'm going to need to find things to fill the time. Once I catch up with sleep that is... Anyone who's going to be in Seattle should let me know when they are free for fun little adventures!