Life Got In The Way
I realized I have not written anything in several months due to life. Life got busy so I had to pick and choose what I did. One of my new years resolutions this past January was to write one piece every week. For a while, I managed it quite well but then life took over.
My day job started getting busier and busier to the point I’d get home at night as late as 9 pm after a very long day. It got to the point, I felt like a guinea pig running on her wheel. Stuck in one place.
Then summer came. I traveled half way across the world from Hawaii to Finland and several places in between. I spent a week in June at a conference in Hawaii. The end of June, beginning of July I attended a conference in Phoenix followed by one in Puerto Rico. Later in the month, I had something in Los Angeles and the beginning of August I attended a conference in Finland before heading back to work a few days late.
One thing I discovered through all my travels is the wonderful usefulness of hotel booking places and possible air carriers. The booking places give me an idea of shuttle availability from the airport to the hotel. Whether the hotel has breakfast included. It even tells me about the internet which is important for me. They have pictures available showing the hotel so you know a bit about it before getting there and an idea of what is in the area.
As far as airlines go, there are several out there that will allow you free stopovers in their country of origin. I ended up choosing Iceland air because I could stop there before I went to Finland. It was on my list of countries I wanted to see before I died.
I ended up back at work a few days late, but talk about jet lag! When you fly back from Finland to Alaska by going through Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, your body has no idea of time zones. I realize its the long way but I had to be back in a small remote village and it was the only way I could manage it.
In the intervening months, I seem to have ended up on every possible committee and have to work late two late nights a week minimum. Sometimes it is three or four depending on what’s happening.
I think I finally got organized enough to get back to publishing here once a week and pursue a few projects in my spare time. I’m learning its a matter of spending 10 minutes here and there on my projects if I don’t have a lot of time available.
I’ve looked at the calendar for the next year and it doesn’t look any better but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In June 2019 I am going to retire because there are two back to back conferences in Ireland in 2019 I want to attend and I can’t go if I’m still working.
In the meantime, I’ll get as much set up for post retirement as I can. Please understand that retirement means I’ll be pursuing my interests rather than trying to squeeze them in between everything. It will be a chance to explore myself in a way I couldn’t at 20 when I was young and wasn’t sure what I wanted in life.
I am already planning my summer with trips to Hawaii, Denver, Los Angeles, and Germany for conferences and a wedding for the summer of 2018. Yes I do most of my traveling during the summer because I teach school and they don’t like you heading off at the drop of a hat for a couple of years.
The nice thing about writing is it makes me slow down and think.
