How much do I hate business travel? Let’s count the ways

In case you are wondering where I am, let me tell you (in a minute); if you don’t; stop reading then!!; what the hell are you doing here??

Well, y’all; I am in Asheville, North Carolina (did you notice?). On business trip. Have I mentioned I do not like traveling on business? There are many reasons, but the main one is that I can not sleep properly in any other bed than mine, with my wife at my side. I know it sounds corny, but I really can not.

There are other reasons, like spending more than 12 hours in airports, planes and rental cars. In the three companies I have worked for; I had to travel on business multiple times: to Asia and South America; to Chicago (every month, even on winter! It’s freaking cold!!) and now to the East Coast (Massachusetts usually, now to a customer site here; twice in the last three months).

And there is also the nagging feeling that something can go wrong back at home while I am out. Like today; my car broke down. I have my wife’s car in San Diego’s airport. So, she does not have a car for tomorrow. Blagh!! (I think I will start using some profanity in my blog; but in Spanish…) Que la chin…!! (nop, I could not do it yet).

Anyway; I did not want to travel this time. We have a customer, who usually is very quiet. But lately, they have been a little on the warpath. Corporate got involved and I have to be here; we had a meeting today, 2 hours to review the new way the want to score our performance as supplier; with an unexpected twist; there is a section where we can score their performance as customer. This is a really novel and exciting idea!! I am so looking forward to it; because I can raise hell for them if we do not get the right score!!! (I feel a little vindictive now, it may pass later). Tomorrow we will continue the meeting at 8:00 am, finishing at 1:30 pm and giving me just enough time to drive back to the airport and take my flight back to San Diego.

Back to the “I did not want to travel…” part. Remember; I believe there are no accidents; I broke my “Dingleberry” phone yesterday. Which means I have no 24/7 access to my email. Which means I do not have a way of knowing what is going on with the people I work. Which means I have an excuse for later to say; “see, that’s exactly why I did not want to go” to my boss. Later, I got busy with other things and I got to the airport 5 minutes before my departure time. 2 minutes before departure time I was in the security gate (it was empty, I was the only person trying to get to the departure gate; it was strange). I arrived to the gate at the same time they were paging me. There was no escape for me; I got in the plane. 11 hours later I got to my hotel.

During the flight (and while waiting in Houston for my second flight) I finished reading “El pintor de batallas” and started and almost finished “Water for Elephants”. So it wasn’t that bad. I started changing my attitude and decided that I will enjoy the trip. So far it has been better than I have told you (like the meeting; it was interesting!) and I had a good dinner (Italian food; a nice-to-good/great place called Carraba’s) and great conversation with the people I met here. I look forward to tomorrow; but there was one thing I wanted to do and couldn’t.

This blogging thing has been a source of surprises; specially related to people that get involved in the stories and problems I have been reporting here. One of them lives close by (relatively speaking; it is a 5 hours drive from here) and I wanted to meet him, but did not have the time on this trip.

(s)wine, next time I come here (and I am pretty sure I will come back) I will make better arrangements to meet you and thank you personally for the feedback and the friendship (*). Until then…

See you around.

(*) Of course it could happen that you go to Tijuana first; in which case you will be more than welcome.