Where I'm At

After traveling non-stop for the past few months, I'm home next week for my first full week in a long time. It's always a weird change to go from lots of travel to a break. I get in one rhythm of things when I travel just like I do when I'm at home for extended periods of time. It's a weird change in either direction.

When I'm traveling, I tend to let my friendships slide. I'm moving so fast and working such long days I don't take the time to call up friends. When I get home, I've been gone from my family for so long that I pour my free time into being with them. When I do have time in between, I try and fit in time around either breakfasts or lunches with my friends so I don't take away from what I'm doing with my family.

I've also been slacking in my exercise. I pack my jump-rope with me and I try and hit the treadmill, but I'll often leave my hotel at 7am get back to my room at 9 or 10 at night. When I do get back, I've often got a days worth of e-mails waiting for me and time to make calls home to the family. Exercise is the one thing that can give, so it does. I also eat like crap when I'm traveling. When I'm entertaining customers I never do a good job of choosing the healthiest plate on the menu and passing up desserts so unless I'm careful, it's easy for me to pack weight on. After getting down to a low of 180 this summer with running, I'm trying to stay within ten pounds of that during the winter. We'll see how that works.

Short of the retreat, I haven't been to our bi-weekly Chaos youth group meetings in a while. I'm looking forward to going on Monday.

I'm back the week of the 16th in New York/New Jersey, traveling again. My wife is being awesome and patient with all of my travel, knowing that the first couple of months for me in this new role is going to be a bit chaotic. I'm hoping after February to have things dialed back a bit.