11:18pm, pacific standard time, hotel in Palm Desert, California, USA, Tuesday night, December 28, 2022. Mom made it safely to Wyoming without my accompanying her. The accomplishment was a team effort; my daughter’s mom drove her to the airport, my daughter and her friend got her through check in and finally, a family acquaintance picked her up in Salt Lake City for the drive back to Wyoming. I am glad she made it and, to be honest, happy I didn’t have to go. This weekend gave me a chance to relax and change perspective regarding work. Now I feel less stressed. If I had missed work yesterday I would have fallen back into the same energy as before. I needed a change. Fortunately there are only three more work days until 2023. Time to make the best of them.
Tag: travel
A long week ahead
6:27pm, pacific standard time, hotel in Palm Desert, California, USA, Monday night, December, 26, 2022. Came to Palm Desert instead of staying in Aliso Viejo tonight. Originally the plan was to take Tuesday off, fly to Salt Lake City with mom, turn around, fly back, then drive to Palm Desert Wednesday afternoon. However, the clinical manager here in Palm Desert had a family emergency so, she is not available to open the office tomorrow. I altered my vacation plans to be here as needed. Unfortunately, that meant traveling on an extremely busy afternoon. A drive that normally takes 2 hours took closer to four. I am tired and getting ready for bed. It feels like this is going to be a long week.
Road warrior
6:35pm, pacific standard time, apartment in Chandler, Arizona, USA, Wednesday night, August 24, 2022. Another day of orientation videos, a couple of errands and a run to the grocery store. I got my suitcase out to prepare for travel next week. Time to transition my thinking back to road warrior mode.
Excited to get started
5:03pm, pacific standard time, apartment in Chandler, Arizona, USA, Thursday evening, August 11, 2022. Had a good conversation with the hiring manager for my new position this morning. I will begin training in Palm Desert, California on Monday and probably spend the first week or two there. Then I will likely be assigned somewhere in Northern California. I was excited to learn Monday and Friday are considered travel days, which makes things infinitely easier on me and my family. This opportunity is turning out to be a true blessing. I am excited to get started.
Living situations
5:20pm, pacific standard time, apartment in Chandler, Arizona, USA, Sunday evening, July 24, 2022. Discussed living situations with my daughter’s mom yesterday. Nothing definitive was decided. She is going to stay in Dana Point until January and I still have the apartment in Chandler until March. That buys us time to discern the best course of action. I will start my job next month and see what the travel schedule looks like before making a final decision.
Someplace familiar
5:00pm, pacific standard time, hotel in Palm Desert, California, Wednesday evening, June 29, 2022. Staying the night in Palm Desert, California before the interview tomorrow in Riverside, California. I haven’t stayed at this hotel in over five years. Back then I would come once a month for regular site visits with a previous company. That was many years ago but, I always liked it here. I considered this hotel my home away from home. It is nice to stay someplace familiar before meeting new people and possibly embarking on a new journey. I am going to go to the evening mixer then grab something for dinner before turning in.
Travel to California
8:53pm, pacific standard time, apartment in Dana Point, California, USA, Thursday night, June 9, 2022. Drove from Chandler, Arizona to Dana Point, California today. After arriving in town I took my daughter and her friend to the mall to buy a birthday present, since yesterday was her mom’s birthday. We ate dinner at the food court. Now I am going to take the dog out and go to bed. Tomorrow at ten am is my daughter’s 8th grade promotion.
Road trip update
6:32am, pacific standard time, hotel room, Henderson, Nevada, USA, Sunday morning, May 1, 2022. Landed safely in Salt Lake City, Utah yesterday morning around 9am. My mom picked me up and we headed south. We stopped for lunch in Beaver, Utah before getting to our hotel around 4pm. After resting for a bit we ate dinner at a local brewery and did some gambling before returning to the hotel at 8pm.
Not much going on, I got a haircut
6:02am, apartment in Chandler, Arizona, Monday morning, March 21, 2022. The drive to Arizona yesterday was exhausting. I left Orange County a quarter after eleven, stopped for gas and a quick haircut (the first in over two years, my daughters mom has been cutting my hair since March of 2020), then was on the road by noon. I noticed yesterday morning the East bound interstate was closed for construction around Glendale (Arizona) so I factored in extra drive time. However, about sixty miles from Phoenix, GPS started adding large chunks of time. Apparently, in addition to construction, a major accident was backing traffic up significantly. The result was a long, slow, detour through crowded industrial areas on the west side of Phoenix. By the time I walked in the door of the apartment at 6:30pm I was tired and cranky. I let everyone know I arrived safely before eating dinner and going to bed. Now it is time to get ready for another week of work.
To California
10:35am, in my car, Phoenix, Arizona, Friday morning, January 21, 2022. At 1pm I am leaving for California. It will be the first time I travel on Friday rather than Saturday. This week was exhausting and it is important to have down time. The route through San Diego might even be an option.
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