Sunday, January 6, 2013

I was away for a while...

Since August, I have been away for a while. My daughter went off to college... and I (read previous entry) was whisked off on an adventure to Maine and on to Canada. I came back from the trip thinking and telling my friends, "I really just want to travel."

The next thing I knew I was contacted by a woman who was looking for someone to travel with her! This was an unusual job opportunity for me and it won me over. I had interviewed for another position that would require me to relocate to New York....it was a job that I had repeatedly pursued for about 3 years. The NY position was so appealing to me but when I actually went to Saugerties, NY to meet the people I would be working with...and see the town where I would live... I changed my mind. Maybe I just wasn't ready to move to another state yet... or maybe this just wasn't the right position after all. I came home and accepted the temporary job - traveling with a Turkish woman.

The job would involve traveling for 6 weeks to National Harbor, DC, Marlboro, Mass, Seattle, Washington, San Mateo, California, Santa Monica, CA, and then to Chicago. I looked at the calendar and I would be away from home over Thanksgiving and my birthday...perfect.

I arranged for a friend and my parents to spend Thanksgiving with my daughter... and started packing. I packed light for the first 2 east coast trips - we would travel by Penske truck and I would be home 1 day off in between shows. Three shows would be on the west coast so we flew to Seattle and rented a car for our travel. After the Santa Monica show we would fly to Chicago and then head back to Pennsylvania. The job by the way was setting up a jewelry booth at an international gem and jewelry show - my job was to set up, sell, pack up and travel.

These trips were interesting and I am still processing the experience. We would wake up around 6 am and work until about 7 pm or later each day... I was sick with a severe cold with flu symptoms - sore throat, aching, stuffy head, coughing and sneezing for part of the trip - so I survived on Advil, Dayquil and Nyquil...hot tea, lemon, honey, cough drops, water, coffee, soup... anything I could get ahold of.

I was miserable.

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