Being away makes me lonely, especially when traveling with a group, and unfortunately we are apart a lot because of the traveling I do for work. Sometimes Myesha and I go days without even talking because in third world countries the cell service isn’t so great, or because we are 14 time zones apart. With the documenting I pretend she’s with me by shooting and then showing her after the fact what I saw.

Even though I don’t normally have a lot of leisure time when I’m on the road, I take a camera to document the surroundings because there’s always something to shoot no matter where I am. The shooting is also a good diversion from the work and the long hours.

Sometimes I just plain get stuck out of town. On one visit I spent 4 days in Beijing doing nothing but staring at the hotel room and walking around outside because it was too snowy to depend on a cab and, oh I don’t speak Mandarin.

Sixteen hours to Beijing, 5 days of work, then 13 hours to Istanbul and a layover. Then 8 hours to Athens, only to arrive at midnight after days of travel and barely any sleep. I stayed in the hotel for two days and slept before the meetings in Corinth. At least we could facetime while I was in Europe.

Day 2.5 in Athens after late arrival… none of these things moved since I had gotten there.

After spending two weeks in Beijing and Qingdao we traveled south to Tianjin, which by comparison is another world. At least here we didn’t have to work 12 hour days, but we did have to get up to be in meetings at 8am local time. I think I woke up at 7:45.

Finally with a translator we made our way to the train station to go to Qingdao, and of course the cabbie had to get gas. So I poked a camera outside the car window to document the cityscape.

We aren’t resort kind of people, but I have to admit staying in one was nice after traveling through rural Asia and wondering if we would have internet access. Also, why doesn’t the entire us live in San Diego with that perfect weather?

My office is technically in Chicago so I spend a lot of time there during the year. I think I was in this room for three weeks before leaving for Asia. Funny thing is no matter in which room at this hotel I stay it always looks the same, only the view outside the window differs just slightly. It’s like having a different picture on the wall of the same house every time I visit.

Not all the traveling I do is for work. Before we moved to Washington I had to go scouting for a place to live, and I managed to find a great AirBNB house in CDA. Interesting place. Also hotels suck, so there’s that.

Do all mid-level hotels buy their ugly ass curtains and decor from the same place? I’m starting to wonder… fluorescent lights and polyester curtains cannot be that hard to find.