Work, life and things in between – Day 3: Flying in the dark!
I am still on my way to work.
Boarding again with my running laptop and my mobile phone crushed between my ear and my shoulder trying to cram a whole day’s work in a 90 minute connection… Freedom is when they close the aircraft door and you have to shut everything down.
The next leg of my journey is only 2 hours. I am already 12 hours into my day. Outside the aircraft window it is dark already. The passengers have shifted from reading the morning paper or working on their laptop to reading Grisham or their favorite magazines. For the most part, their day is over. They are heading home. Me? I am still heading towards the office.
Usually, I, spend most of that two hour working. I am still hitting the key board like there is no tomorrow, going through the last wave of e-mails down loaded in Chicago. I am mindful of the fact that my teams in Singapore, India and The Philippines are already into tomorrow and need answers to their questions of yesterday (my today)…just because you are tired, does not mean the world will wait.
Landing in Florida, it is 11 pm, local time. Not quite so late in my body given the 3 hour difference.
Sometimes your luggage is delivered to the carousel, sometimes it is not. Once you show up for a staff meeting in your jeans and flip flops on account of your luggage not making it on the same flight as you, you never have to experience this again. We all do it once. Then, you always travel in business attire with extra undies in your purse.
I pick up the car and hit the 95 south to Tampa. It will be a 40 minute drive. I like the drive from the airport to the hotel. I know the way, I have my preferred radio station and I crack the window open and feel the heat of the night. Because it is so late, there is no one on the road, except the occasional troopers’ car speeding by. This time is the only mellow part of my day. Nice.
We are nearing midnight and I have to locate a pharmacy. Unless someone picked it up, my makeup bag is still in the ladies room in Chicago. Just as I was applying lipstick my phone rang and I got pulled into a heated conversation and forgot all about what I was doing. If I were to tell my mother that I am driving by myself, past midnight, on the Interstate to find a pharmacy to buy lipstick and eye shadow, she would think I have gone mad! Maybe I have…..
Since my first night on the east coast typically averages 3 to 4 hours of sleep at best, it is out of the question to show up at work tomorrow without so much as a lipstick or eye color assistance.
By the time I get to my room it is well past midnight. Just about supper time in my body and the only food around is Pringles, Aero chocolate bar and for the health conscious freaks, sodium loaded crackers and crap cheese!
Who sleeps, eats we say in French. My problem is that I neither sleep nor eat.
I unpack, hang everything up, and prepare my clothes for tomorrow. The wakeup call will come in at 3 am in my body and it will be painful. One last check on my blackberry. Singapore is happy, they got what they wanted.
No one here to tuck me in. So what else is new? See for yourself on day 4.I am still on my way to work.
Boarding again with my running laptop and my mobile phone crushed between my ear and my shoulder trying to cram a whole day’s work in a 90 minute connection… Freedom is when they close the aircraft door and you have to shut everything down.
The next leg of my journey is only 2 hours. I am already 12 hours into my day. Outside the aircraft window it is dark already. The passengers have shifted from reading the morning paper or working on their laptop to reading Grisham or their favorite magazines. For the most part, their day is over. They are heading home. Me? I am still heading towards the office.
Usually, I, spend most of that two hour working. I am still hitting the key board like there is no tomorrow, going through the last wave of e-mails down loaded in Chicago. I am mindful of the fact that my teams in Singapore, India and The Philippines are already into tomorrow and need answers to their questions of yesterday (my today)…just because you are tired, does not mean the world will wait.
Landing in Florida, it is 11 pm, local time. Not quite so late in my body given the 3 hour difference.
Sometimes your luggage is delivered to the carousel, sometimes it is not. Once you show up for a staff meeting in your jeans and flip flops on account of your luggage not making it on the same flight as you, you never have to experience this again. We all do it once. Then, you always travel in business attire with extra undies in your purse.
I pick up the car and hit the 95 south to Tampa. It will be a 40 minute drive. I like the drive from the airport to the hotel. I know the way, I have my preferred radio station and I crack the window open and feel the heat of the night. Because it is so late, there is no one on the road, except the occasional troopers’ car speeding by. This time is the only mellow part of my day. Nice.
We are nearing midnight and I have to locate a pharmacy. Unless someone picked it up, my makeup bag is still in the ladies room in Chicago. Just as I was applying lipstick my phone rang and I got pulled into a heated conversation and forgot all about what I was doing. If I were to tell my mother that I am driving by myself, past midnight, on the Interstate to find a pharmacy to buy lipstick and eye shadow, she would think I have gone mad! Maybe I have…..
Since my first night on the east coast typically averages 3 to 4 hours of sleep at best, it is out of the question to show up at work tomorrow without so much as a lipstick or eye color assistance.
By the time I get to my room it is well past midnight. Just about supper time in my body and the only food around is Pringles, Aero chocolate bar and for the health conscious freaks, sodium loaded crackers and crap cheese!
Who sleeps, eats we say in French. My problem is that I neither sleep nor eat.
I unpack, hang everything up, and prepare my clothes for tomorrow. The wakeup call will come in at 3 am in my body and it will be painful. One last check on my blackberry. Singapore is happy, they got what they wanted.
No one here to tuck me in. So what else is new? See for yourself on day 4.