Woman in the Suitcase

 

When I first offered to say over the weekend on my current business travel assignment, I thought, "Greaaat, this is going to feel like an eternity." Even so, I thought that it would be well worth it. Traveling home every weekend hardly seemed worth it. The extra time in packing up my hotel room, checking out, waiting at the airport, the flight itself, the drive back, eats away at one's 48 hour weekend rather quickly. This is to say nothing of the fact that I have to fly out again on Sunday -- which doubles the whole mess.

If I were going to a different state, or even a different client the next week, it would be worth it. That is not the case. Instead, I'm on my fourth week with the same client and staying in the same hotel. The scant 22 hours of free time hardly seems worth all the effort. Instead, I thought it best for me to just stay here. The advantage is that my weekend expenses qualify for reimbursement. There's a small laundry on the fourth floor where I'll wash my clothes later this afternoon. For the relatively minor sacrifice of being away from "hearth and home", the benefits are well worth it.

I'm beginning to find that physical location isn't that important to me. Yes, I may be away from my familiar apartment. I may be in another state and in another time zone, but none of that seems to matter as much. I'm beginning to find that my laptop is more home to me than my home is.

Most of everything I do now goes through my computer or the internet. I write in word processors and sketch in graphics applications. The 15.4" LCD is the pages of a book or the silver screen, depending on my fancy. The tiny speakers are my personal concert hall. Here, I feel more at home than anywhere else. Perhaps I'm strange for that. Other's complain about being stuck in front of a glowing screen for hours on end. After a while, they want to get away. Even I tire of it -- my optimaligist loathes my love of the machine. Thankfully LCDs are far easier on the eyes than the CRTs of yesteryear. I always try to follow reasonable brightness and distance policies. Nevertheless, I'm not away for long.

Perhaps the reason I only rarely get frustrated with computers is because I don't see them as a barrier. They aren't a roadblock in the avenue of human communication, they are a gateway. They are a medium no better nor worse than other mediums of communication. They are just different, that's all.

I have another week here. Then the following week I go the United Kingdom for 11 days. Then I'll be back here for another week or two. Although the year is still young, I've put in almost as much travel as I did last year. What if this just keeps going? While I hope to have some time to spend in my apartment soon, have laptop, will travel.