Tuesday's Traveler - A week at the office

Here goes...my first post of my new series!  I'm so excited and I hope y'all join along each week to read my stories, tips, and other stuff that revolves around traveling and living on the road 125 days a year.

This week is going to be kind of serious, but only because it's 11:18 pm Central Standard Time, which is the current time zone I'm in because, once again, I'm on the road!  And I have to get up at 6 am (which my body tells me is really 4 am) to get ready for the day.  I didn't really have time to prepare a topic this week, so I went with what I'm "dealing" with right now.

I travel to "headquarters" (HQ - aka, main offices) a couple times a year.  Now for those of you that don't know me personally, HQ is located 30 minutes from where I grew up and was living prior to becoming a SoCal gal.  That means I have friends in the area that I don't get to see very often.  But here's the kicker, I never know what my week in the Gulf Coast is going to entail, so I can never make plans to see people I haven't seen in 3 years.  It kind of stinks.  Rant alert:  But at the same time, I don't really talk to these people that often (via email, FB, or whatever) during the rest of the year so why would I want to spend my precious time with people who won't spend their time on me? End rant.

Anyway, I digress.

Typical weekly trip schedule, regardless of destination, looks a little like this:
Monday - Travel day
Tuesday - visits or office work if I'm at HQ
Wednesday - repeat Tuesday
Thursday - repeat Tuesday
Friday - Travel day

Now if I'm staying local, like CA, AZ, or NV, I can typically take an early flight on Monday and hit the ground running with visits after I land.  And I can do some visits in the morning before leaving on Fridays.  But when I change time zones, particularly when I fly to the Central or Eastern zones, there isn't much else going on on Monday and Friday but quality time with Delta, United, or whatever airline I've overpaid to stuff my bootay into a cramped window seat over the wing.

Anyway...back to making time to see people.  In reality, I usually have 3-4 good nights to plan to see people.  I was at HQ 3 times since this time last year and I am just now getting around to seeing the lady I lived with before I moved to California (this woman is like my 2nd mom).  She has a daughter my age who is married with children and whom I was friends with as a kid.  There's also the two close girlfriends that live in the area and their husbands.  Then my guy BFF and his fiance' (he's the brother I never had).  Then there's getting together with co-workers and the occasional invite from the bossman to dinner.  Needless to say my nights fill up quickly and I don't get to see all that I want too.

Because of this conundrum, I usually don't tell people I'm coming to town.  I would hate to have to cancel on people, so I just find it easier to not spill the beans.  I hate trying to make last minute plans sometimes, but I make the exception in this case because my travel life is just so unpredictable! 

So to those of you who know me in real life that aren't in the above listed categories, I'm hope that someday on one of my future ventures to the Gulf Coast we can do something somewhere.  But I make no promises and hope you understand.

Stay safe, y'all!