Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Too much!

Have you heard the saying "Too much of a good thing is still too much" or have I made it up?

In any case, I'm living that. And, I don't feel like I can really comment on it because it's obnoxious, but here goes: I've been doing WAY too much travel this  year. I love to say YES to every offer I get, and I've been using miles so my flights have cost me very little, but this has been my year:

 - January: work trip to the Bay Area; weekend away with one of my book groups
 - February: 2 weeks in Toronto
 - March: weekend houseguest
 - May: work trip to Detroit, weekend in Toronto; overnight guests 
 - June: two-week trip to Hawaii for (awesome!) family wedding; weekend trip to Ashland
 - July: weekend in Nashville for family reunion;  long camping weekend (of excellent good times!);   houseguest

 - September: week-long bike trip (of awesomeness!), bracketed by houseguests; houseguest and grad school reunion party (of splendor!)
 - October: weekend in San Francisco; 9-day visit to see family in Hawaii;  overnight guests
 - November: weekend in Ashland, bracketed by parents visiting Portland; weekend away with one of my book groups
 - December: weeklong trip out of the country;  East Coast for Christmas with possible day trip to NYC

On top of all that was biking a TON and running a lot; and totaling my car in mid-September. Of the eight weekends left in the year, I'll be home for three.

So, I'm having an awesome time, I'm spending WAY too much on travel (because even if the flights are $100 or less, it costs money to be in other places), and my biggest issue is that it's very hard to enjoy each little piece, because I view it as part of a larger, more-stressful whole.

I solemnly swear I'll be better in 2015. I already have a few things planned (weekend away with friends, between one and three trips to warm places in the spring, trips to Toronto and a family reunion in the fall...), and I foresee a few more (a couple of zero-birthday celebrations, work conference travel), but I'll TRY to do better. Because no one likes a whiner.

4 comments:

  1. I wish I could travel more! I agree, it's super expensive and can be stressful even though it's fun! Sounds like you've had a lot of it lately.

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    1. It helps a LOT that I work from home, so I can work from the road when I visit friends and family. That way, they don't have to take time off to entertain me either, and it's more like a real-life snippet than a whirlwind vacation. This year I spent three weeks working from places other than home! One of these days I'll get another office job and this will be over.

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  2. I wish I loved to travel but the truth is I love to stay home. I've been fighting this about myself for years but now I'm trying to accept it. So, though I'm sure most people would be really jealous, that sounds like an exhausting nightmare to me!

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    1. Hey, know theyself and all that! One of the big patterns in my life is saying yes to All The Things, getting exhausted/burned out, and retreating for a while. This is just a very extreme example of that pattern - mostly I thrive on it, but also, it's really too much to for me enjoy when taken in such doses.

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