Three Words Back...

Yawwwwwwn

Folks, since when is eight hours of sleep still not enough?

And for the record, I was supposed to be flying into DFW Airport this afternoon.  Not that I'm bitter or anything....

I need to shut up and get some coffee now, or else I'll think about this too much and be in a bad mood before the day has a chance to get started. 

Oh, and the question of the day is this: Is seven years really that long of a time? 

I'll explain later...need caffeine...

Lyrical Spotlight - Better Than Ezra

Briefly by Better Than Ezra

Wake me up
Slap my face
Draw me closer in
to your embrace

'Cause nobody wants to be the butt of every joke
And nobody wants to be the one to pull the rope
So you harden your shell
Slowly losing yourself

And now I'm close
but not touching
And I'm cold
but not freezing
And I'm only alive
only alive
Briefly

Can you feel
Could you love
Are you further now from where you started
I bet you do enough just to get by
Don't you

'Cause nobody wants to be the butt of every joke
And nobody wants to be the one to pull the rope
And a cop's light goes by
And the moon lights the night

And now I'm close
but not touching
And I'm cold
but not freezing
And I'm only alive
only alive
Briefly

And you're a starlight that shines
for a moment in time
In time

Good Morning, Albany

Thirteen branches and 1500+ miles later, I am finally settling down in the same place for an entire month.  Hello, Albany, New York, it's nice to be here.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I will be sleeping for the next 10 hours.
---
Good morning, Albany.  Thanks for the sunshine outside my window...looking forward to checking out the city later today.  But first things first.

The Good:
1. I'm 76 miles from Cooperstown, New York, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame and subject of the first research paper I ever wrote way back in the 9th grade.  I plan on killing a day there in the near future.
2. I'm roughly two hours away from both NYC and Boston...how awesome is that?
3.  Albany is the capital of New York, so it will be fun to explore the capital area,

The Bad:
Originally I was scheduled to loop back to the Pittsburgh area after finishing my tour of branches.  This would have allowed me to fly out of Pittsburgh and spend next weekend in Lake Texoma at what I like to think of as the "Let The Boys Be Boys" Weekend with some old college friends.  But at the last minute I was sent to Albany to help out with a staffing shortage, and the situation here makes it impossible for that trip to happen.  My one chance a year to see Curt, Michael, and Tripp in one place...and it's gone.

My job gives a lot, but it also takes a lot.  I rack up all these travel experiences, and at times it feels like I gain those at the expense of some great moments with family and friends.  For every "You'll never guess what I'm doing today" phone call I get to make, I'm receiving a "Here's what you missed  today" call the following week.  In the end I hope it all balances out....but some days it feels like I'm never in the right place at the right time.

The Breakfast:
Residence Inn has a mean breakfast buffet, so it's time for me to wrap this up.

2:00 In The Morning Got the Fatburger

But other than that, yesterday was not a good day.

A Million Miles, A Million Miles

My stay in West Virginia was short and sweet.  Two towns in two days, one false alarm on a flat tire, one false alarm on a broken air conditioner, and lots of twists and turns driving up, down, and around more mountains than I ever saw living in west Texas.

This morning I was given a new assignment: travel to every new location we've opened in 2008 in Pennsylvania, New York, and northeast Ohio.  The good news is that I got to decide my own itinerary, so I'll be zig-zagging my way around those three states for the next week or so.  All in all, I'm looking at logging around 900 miles in eight days.

View Larger Map

My three state tour starts tomorrow, so tonight I'm packing in as many "fun" activities as I can while watching the Star Wars marathon on SPIKE - consolidating boxes of odds and ends I've amassed while living on the road, uploading photos, registering for points I've earned at hotels and Starbucks, making travel arrangements, updating my TomTom (a true lifesaver, given my lifestyle), burning cds, and wondering which book I will start (but not come close to finishing anytime soon) before going to bed late tonight.

Since joining our traveling team eight months ago, I've worked in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and (in a couple of days) New York.  I've had a chance to make quick trips over to Ann Arbor, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois.  Of those eight states, seven of them were places I had never seen before.  As crazy as this life feels on most days, and as big of a pain in the arse living out of hotel rooms and suitcases can be at times, I have to admit that on most days I appreciate how lucky I am to be in this position.  Not only am I getting to see a lot of our beautiful country that I would probably never see otherwise, it continues to provide some great career opportunities.    I'm in a good place (or places, if you will) and when I look back on being 24 and agonizing daily over what the crap I was going to do with my life, I have to smile at how many things have fallen into place since then.

Whirlwind

Saturday I left Kentucky to return to Columbus, Ohio.  440 miles later I checked into my newest hotel and prepared for a Sunday and Monday full of meetings.  Anytime our whole travel team comes together for a meeting, it's a little reminiscent of the first day back at school after summer vacation.  Even though we all talk and email and have weekly conference calls, nothing replaces human interaction.  So there are hugs, and more stories to share, and the younger folks stay out until the wee hours of the morning.  I believe they still call it "clubbing."  I wouldn't know - I am officially old and am now the person telling them, "Have a good time, but be safe...and call me if someone can't drive home."  Sometimes the 22 and 23 year-olds on our team make me feel young, and sometimes they make me feel old.  These days mostly old.

Tuesday morning I had a great conversation about my career and my future with the company with both my boss and the head of our entire traveling program.  Good times, and it looks like even more travel is coming my way soon.  Later that day I checked out and drove an hour to my current location, where I am being uber-productive and spending all kinds of money to get my alignment fixed and my tail light replaced.  Good times.

Oh, and at the meeting they announced a change in company policy.  We are now allowed to earn reward points at each of the hotel chains that we use.  Give me a few more months and I'll be the Bill Gates of reward points.

Okay, time to get ready for work.  I have one day here in town, then I spend a day at each of two West Virginia towns before leaving for....oh, I'm not even going to pretend to know that right now.

PS - Just found out that Josh Ritter is playing tonight in nearby Athens, Ohio.  Today is going to be good.

Rain, Rain, Rain

You know what the world needs?

More songs about rain.  I've almost got enough to get me through the day.

Alright readers, hit up the comments with your favorite rain songs.