On Travel

I am a homebody.

I really hate traveling. I hate sitting in the car or on an airplane for hours, awaiting arrival at my travel destination. I hate sleeping in strange beds, living out of a suitcase, or being someone's guest. I hate using strange showers and not having the right soap, shampoo, or conditioner. I hate not having the staples of my diet easily available or accessible.

Part of this is because my family always lived in the same house, with the exception of my dad's one-year sabbaticals to California and England. They had bought the house several years before I was born, and Dad still lives in my childhood home. While the stability was good, I think it also made it more difficult for me to adjust to changes in my living environment.

But sometimes, you have to travel. And sometimes, the fun outweighs the misery of travel, and it's worth it. For example, our Grand Canyon vacation was fun, and worth living out of a suitcase for a week, as was our recent holiday family time. Similarly, a good professional meeting or conference can cancel out all the travel misery.

Other times, the travel is not worth it. I do what I can to get out of that travel. I was supposed to attend a meeting next month in a very luxurious location, but I chose not to attend that meeting. The travel required would have been especially miserable -- a long flight followed by three hours in a shuttle van, and the same thing in reverse to get home. While it was tempting to go to this resort vacation spot for a one-day meeting, and do some tourist activities while I was there, I quickly realized that if I were going to go to that place, I would want to enjoy it with my family, not my colleagues. Since the meeting wasn't vital, I just decided to skip out.

Incidentally, I may not like traveling, but I do enjoy having guests.