Second Dates...

one of my goals in 2012 is to date more, in the hopes of not having to date more going forward...if that makes sense. So, one of the first goals is to get to a second date. Easier said than done. I do end up traveling a bit for work, and sometimes that has a tendency to get in the way of getting to date 2...but I'll be working on that as a goal for 2012...getting past the first date and getting to date 2. You can't make any quick decisions when it comes to dating and my philosophy is you need 2 or 3 dates usually until you can make some decisions about whether you want to continue to seeing each other...or if there's potential for something more...

you gotta have hope...hope for a better tomorrow...hope for a second date!  =)

Life at 30,000 feet...

okay...maybe not life, it's not like I've become George Clooney's character in Up in the Air or anything, at least not yet. I have managed to log a ton of flight time this year, and pad my mileage account and my hilton honors points. The folks at Virgin Atlantic know me, the breakfast host at my hotel in London recognizes me and welcomes me back now when he sees me and when I checked in the other day, the clerk at the front desk remembered I had been here recently without the computer prompting him to say welcome back (I wasn't at the front of the que checking in when he welcomed me back). I have apparently done a ton of travel this last year. I've crossed the country and back....I've crossed the Atlantic and back...and back...and back. I have been to big global cities and smaller ones. I've had great flights on amazing airlines, decent flights on not so great ones...and crappy flights on once great airlines. I've eaten good food in bad airports and bad food in good ones.  I can get a week's worth of travel into a carry on bag...no, seriously. There are a few things I need to get off my chest, and since I'm on day 3 of a 19 day trip, I figured the time was now.

I am the experienced traveler at the airport...and I can spot a novice from a mile away. There is a line for you...really, I'm not kidding. And it's not the same line as me. And I don't care how frequently (or how hot you are) you fly Daddy...when you're traveling with the wife and kids, you DO NOT get to use the experienced traveler line. You might be, but the rest of your family is not. As I'm self-checking in, or as I'm walking to security, the belt is being pulled off and stowed in the carry on. The coat is already there. The wallet and blackberry have been stowed. I have no jewelry to take off by the time I get to the line. I have my laptop out in one easy movement and am zipping the carry on again as I take my shoes off. I know that the shoes go right on the belt and don't have to have a bin. But, more importantly, once I'm through the scanner or XRay machine (ok...tangent here...really, if you get sent to the scanner line...be thrilled somebody is looking at your junk, do what you need to do without shouting about the infringement of your privacy and move on. There are other methods of travel and if the TSA is that much of an inconvenience for you...we frequent travelers would much rather you take the bus anyway...okay, rant done.) I have thrown my slip on shoes on the floor and am slipping into them as I'm picking up my laptop and my carry on and getting out of the way. You do not, repeat, do not put your shoes on, put the belt on and get yourself ready again whilst standing at the security xray machine, backing everyone else up and just annoying them. I'm just saying.

I've been delayed departing...circled before landing...and even been on flights that have arrived early. It's been a pretty amazing year. All told, by the end of the year, I will have spent about 80 days on the road for work...I'll have logged 24 flight segments - which averages to 2 flights a month and just over 6 days a month away from my own bed. I LOVE my job. I love that I get to travel. I love that I've seen London, San Francisco, London, San Antonio, London, DC, London and Singapore, and many more by the end of the year. I love that by accumulating points and miles I sent my parents away for their honeymoon. I love that as I continue to travel, that's a tradition I hope that I can keep up over the years and keep giving them memorable trips.

I love that I get to send my nephews post cards from all over the world. I love that they have a scrap book of cards that I've been sending since I started traveling. I love the my youngest nephew has postcards from trips while he was still in utero. I love that they have tshirts and souvenirs from places that people in my hometown don't know where to find on the map. I love that my friends are jealous of my travels...whether they admit it or not...I hate how that sounds.

I hate that hotels have the same horrible art all over the world. I hate that no matter how hard I try...a hotel bed just isn't as comfortable as the one at home. I hate that no matter what I pack, I always seem to forget something I would have liked to have worn. I hate the looks I get some places when I walk in and ask for a table for 1...my money is just as good as everyone else's...and I'm much less work than a table of 5...really. I hate that this many days on the road does nothing for my love life. I hate having to explain on a first date why I won't be around for a second for another week or 10 days as I'll be on the road...that second date never happens. I hate that my nephews don't have a Flat Stanley in their class...Uncle Greg would so get them a winning classroom easily...I mean who else could have Stanley standing on the SNL stage one week, in front of Big Ben the next and then on the Golden Gate bridge a month after that?

I cannot complain about my life. When I talk about wanting to be in my own bed...it's not a complaint about my job or the amount of travel I do...it's just that after logging all this time away, I want to be in my own bed when I am home. Yes, I chose this job and I LOVE it. No, I was not accustomed to doing this much time on the road before this year, but I'll get used to it. I have friends in cities all over now (and yes, a few of them are flight attendants and neither of us can be called Virgins any longer...but that's another post) and I love that I get to catch up with some of them on my journeys. This has been an amazing year at 30,000 feet...and even when my feet are on the ground!

George...

There is really no way to talk about this, without someone I know (maybe a few people) reading it and feeling sad...and that is not my intent at all. I am okay with it. It is what it is, and I know it won't always be this way.

I find sleeping in a Queen sized bed lonely when I sleep alone. I feel like a kid when I sleep in a twin bed, and let's face it, now that I've gone up to a Queen from a Double/Full...there's just no going back! (that, and a Queen deserves a Queen). I would prefer to have someone occupy the bed with me...but that's not happening, so, in the interim I wrap my arms around a body pillow every night and his name is George. I don't recall how he was bestowed with the name George, but if I'm sleeping with him every night he might as well have a name...makes it seem like less of a one night stand, no? He makes climbing into bed a little less lonely.

I am not lonely, per se. I have an amazing family and great friends, and it's not like I sit home alone every night and wish there were people in my life. I just wish there was someone I wanted to share my bed with me on a regular basis. Like I said, I'm not lonely...I am just longing for that person I want to spend more than one night and who wants to spend more than one night in my bed with me...and then George can retire to some island somewhere where the cabana boys wear tight little speedoes and bring him fruity drinks in festive glasses. He deserves that after having put up with me for so long...so, Mr Right (and I stress, not just Mr. Right Now) if you're out there reading this, please let me know...George needs to start planning for retirement!

Bullies

Today, being spirit day where we show our support for youth (LGBT youth in particular) that are bullied. I figured it was appropriate to talk about all the different types of bullies out there. It's more than just the kids shouting taunts at each other anymore - make no mistake about it, those kinds of bullies are still there, but there are so many more these days.

There's the activist that believes so much in their cause that they are blinded by their ideals and cannot see the other side of the argument and quickly resort to nasty tactics to prove their point, often ignoring the fallacy of their own statements or their own contradictory nature. Take for example the National Organization for Marriage. They claim that gay marriage shouldn't be allowed because it violates the traditional definition of marriage, which in their eyes, involves procreation and the raising of children. In reality...they shout this at the top of their lungs, so loudly that they don't hear the questions. Why aren't you fighting divorce? With divorce rates in this country sky-rocketing, clearly this is bad for marriage. Why aren't you fighting marriages that take place that don't result in children? You yourselves said that marriage is all about procreation - so if a marriage does not produce children, it should be dissolved, it is clearly not a traditional marriage. They don't fight these things because they are bullies. They really don't care about marriage - they are just against the gays, and will do anything in their power to "put us in our place".

There's the friends that take advantage and only take, take, take and give nothing back...everything becomes your fault. You are the one that lost touch, you are the one that never calls, you are the one that constantly has to keep up the communication and thus the friendship. They are constantly blathering on about how great your friendship is, but don't ever take steps to see you or contact you unless they need something. That's not a friend...it's a contact and you network with contacts. They have time for everyone in their life but you. Dinner? A show? Getting together? They are far too busy to make time for that...but they have time to take another trip with another friend. They have time to go to this benefit or that and blast it all over twitter or facebook, but don't have the time for you. That's not a friend...it's a bully...a time bully, and my time is just as important as yours, so if you're a time bully, I have no time for you until the scales come even.

Just two examples of the non-traditional bullies that are out there...there are many more. The time has come for us all to say goodbye to bullying, to take ownership of any bullying we do and let it go...become better people, better friends...better humans...we're all in this together!

Bucket List...

I'm not talking about that horrid movie with Jack Nicholson in it, but the concept is still the same. Do you have a list of things you'd like to do before you die? How long have you been keeping it and what makes the cut? Are there only little things on the list, or big ones too? How many things have you been able to tick off? I'm intrigued by this concept as I've recently started to keep a sort of bucket list. I've decided that there are some things that can be added, even though I have already done them. Major events, things it was nice to have done, but I know I might not get to do again. I've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, when I was in High School. I would love to do it again, but if I don't get to, I know that I've done it. There are things on there that have yet to be ticked off. I'll get to them, sooner or later, hopefully. You know what's not on there? Wasting time on stupid mis-understandings. Putting too much pressure on myself to be perfect...and expecting that from myself. Working 14 hours a day isn't on there either (although at times, that does become a thing you must do). The things that are one there will take me some time to accomplish and I hope that I get to the end of my life and say that I was able to tick all of them off...that would be a life lived without regret.

Changes...

they're inevitable. Things change all the time. We can go with the flow and learn and grow from the changes or we can become paralyzed with fear and hope that change never happens. Just because things are changing doesn't mean that it's bad...but it doesn't mean it's good either. Sometimes it's about your perspective. Some folk see growing older (as your body does and changes all the time in doing so) as a bad thing...others embrace it. Change happens...and starts at a young age. Your diapers get changed...you change grades in school...you change from being a passenger to driving the car...you change friends...you change hairstyles...you change boyfriends or girlfriends..sometimes as often as you change classes in high school.

When you're younger, you don't fear change as much...it's happening to everyone you know, all around you. As you get older you suddenly realize that there are patterns to your life and that even the slightest changes to those patterns have unique consequences. Any little change can upset the balance. We have to learn to not let change paralyze us with fear. As adults we have to be more adaptive to change and what it can bring. We have to see through our own fear and realize that every day we all change in ways that aren't even seen...so just because we see this change coming doesn't mean its bad.

Change isn't easy...nothing in life is. Change can be hard. Change can get up in your face and yell and scream...change can just walk away without explanation...change can be slower and slowly drift out of your life...like watching the tide go out and not knowing where it's gone. Change can come and go in all of these ways and more...change can drive you to keep going and make you stronger or change can paralyze you with fear...I chose to let change make me stronger...no matter what the struggle. I also chose to believe that change heavy to carry around...which is why nobody does for long!

Oversharing...

In this day and age, when everyone has a blog, and facebook and a twitter account (or two or three) and mobile devices that are all more powerful and more portable than my first laptop computer I worry sometimes about the oversharing of information. Do we really need to know it all? I mean, do I need to know where you are for lunch and who you're with just by the virtue of your check in? Do I really care?

Do I really need to know? Probably not, but it's nice to have the information. Do I really care? Not about everyone's check in activity, but about a core group of people's...sure I do. Let's face it, technology has made it very easy for us all to stay in touch and up to date with everyone, everywhere...

One word of caution though...I you start checking in from the bathroom...I'm probably going to unfollow you! =)