Traveling...alone

Tomorrow I will be traveling alone. I HATE traveling alone. Twice a year for business I head off to some business hotel and stay a few days without Kathleen. During those days I will spend most of the daytime meeting with Jostens reps who are my customers and my friends. But it can be very stressful because even though these people are my friends, they also see me as someone who sells them something. 

It used to be that I had a lot of friends I had known forever that worked with Jostens and it gave me someone to eat with or have a drink with at the meetings. But over the years they have left Jostens by retirement or separation or whatever and now Kay, Phil, Jim and especially Bob are long gone and I am left with a very few folks who see me as a friend to spend time instead of someone who sells them a product and a service. And most of them are much younger than I am. Strangely, most Jostens reps seems to retire somewhere between 55 and 60. I have what I like to call self-employed retirement, work until you die. With all these folks gone when we aren't in meetings I will pretty much be in my room. Somewhere in me is an entire humongous post on friends but that's for another day when I have a bunch of time. 

And speaking of spending time in my room, that's the other thing, when I am away from home I don't sleep. I find it impossible to sleep alone. I don't know what it is but it didn't bother me as much before Kathleen and I started living together. Since then, if I don't get into bed with her I have the damnedest time going to sleep. Most nights while I am gone, I will sleep less than four hours. 

So, I don't look forward to these trips. It's stressful to get ready for them and I am exhausted when I get back. This time will be better flight-wise as I am on a non-stop and I splurged and used miles to put myself in first class. That means I get a meal, a nice seat, a digi-player and can use my laptop to run though my classes that I will teach on Monday. And coming home I will hopefully have a nice flight and arrive home all happy and cheery. And this trip is better than most timing-wise. At least I am leaving mid-day on a Sunday and I'll be back on Friday around noon. Friday and Saturday are my favorite two days of the week. They are very special days for us and I hate to miss them. Last year I was gone from Thursday through Tuesday. Not a good mix. Good thing I am not a big football fan as during the entire Super Bowl, I will be in an airplane. 

Adios for now!