I haven't been on a business trip for a year. Last year I went on a crazy 36-hour trip to Corona, CA and it was probably the worst business trip I've ever taken. I'm thoroughly spoiled by J&J business trips where we fly business class, stay at posh hotels and have seemingly unlimited food budgets (how does one spend $65 on a meal, I ask you). Well, things are different with a smaller company and that's just life. So I'm traveling as if I'm paying for it out of pocket, trying to save whenever possible.
When I was booking hotels, I realized how much I don't love traveling now. Before anything was better than the apt I was renting. Staying at hotels was a luxury. Now, nothing seems to be better than our house and staying at hotels became a downgrade. Oh, but I'm definitely thankful that I get to stay at our comfortable home 95% of the time and concede once in a while to hotels. Much better this way than the other way around.
Actually the hardest part of this trip is not comfort, it was the schedule. We were supposed to be in a different city everyday. And since these were small cities, we had to make connections since there were no direct flights. And the weather in the east was pretty bad so we missed a connecting flight from Charlotte to Austin and had to stay there overnight and take an insane 6am flight the next morning. Which meant we had to get a taxi at 4:15 am, which meant we had to wake up at 3:50 am EST (which is 12:50 am PST!). Crazy, crazy. I felt like I woke up before I fell asleep.
When my flight home landed in San Jose at 8:30 pm on Friday, it was pouring rain. I was so thankful that our flight was not delayed at all. When I finally got home at 9pm-ish on Friday night I was exhausted. I laid on the floor (because I was so dirty) and almost fell asleep. David finally came home from church at around 10pm and I was so happy to see him. I just felt like I took a deep breath and relaxed when he came home.
I then mustered the energy to shower, wash my hair (I just felt sooo dirty), dry my hair and brush my teeth. We climbed into bed at around 10:40 or so and I think I fell asleep in a flash.
Yesterday I woke up late and we made it to church just in time for hymn singing. Thankfully, I had no duties at all. Really thank God for that. After church we went to San Jose for Hosanna dress rehearsal and we came home at around 8pm or so and I went to bed at around 10:30 and got up at 10 am this morning.
Oh, I'm just so thankful to have this Sunday. I really, really needed a do-nothing day. The weather is so strange so far though. We woke up to clear blue skies. Then all of a sudden, a gray cloud comes by an it starts to pour rain. Then half an hour later it would be clear blue skies again. That's been repeating for the past 2 hours or so.