This is where I am right now. Denver, Co. It looks pretty much like it does in this picture. I'm here for business. It's a nice city from what I can tell. It has a lovely mountain backdrop, it's clean, or at least it's clean compared to my typical stomping grounds in NYC. It's got a cool street closed off to traffic where all the stores and restaurants are that is right outside my hotel. The hotel is ok. And for someone who is not crazy about flying, besides the 2 hour delay before leaving Laguardia, I am happy to say the flight here was uneventful. I passed the time with a movie that was thankfully about as long as the flight, so I didn't focus on how many hours I was cooped up in the plane. Did I mention I don't like to fly? I'm here for a massive conference (I would guess more than 1,000 attendees) focused on an area of my practice. So far it has been educational, the speakers entertaining (including Native American storyteller/performer Kenneth Little Hawk who brought down the house this morning while imparting his stories' morals about equality), and the food is pretty good. By lunch time today I had already been offered a different job, so I guess the networking aspect of these things is for real. But...I still do not like traveling when it's not for my own purposes. I don't like someone else deciding WHEN I travel, WHAT city I go to, WHAT plane I fly on to get there, WHAT hotel I stay in, and WHO else goes with me. I don't mean to complain - I'm seeing a new city, I'm not paying the tab, and someone else makes my bed in the morning. But, I still would rather not be here. Being here means I have to go back to the airport in a few days and get cooped up in a plane again at the mercy of the turbulence Gods and whoever picks the movies that will show on the flight, lose 2 hours of my life to the time zone changes, and go to work to tackle the pile of things that is already accumulating while I am away. My last vacation with my boyfriend was wonderful - we chose the what, when, where and how of it all, and I was with someone I adore so I had a great time. So, while I like to travel, I definitely prefer it on my terms, when I can schedule it, pick the destination, mode of transportation, hotel, how I spend my time, and with who it is spent. It's nothing personal, Denver.
