Service With a (Forced) Smile

It’s been a really long time since I’ve been on client site – with responsibilities. The last few trips, I was there in a training or observational capacity, which meant I could stare out the window or text funny things to people, or draft blog posts. This trip I actually had to pay attention, and participate, and take good notes, and do some rather complex troubleshooting involving SSL certificates that was WAY over my head. Business travel is a pain, but for the single mother it usually means quiet, free expensive dinners with lots of drinks in places that have two waiters per table, lounging comfortably for hours in a room I don’t have to clean and a bed absolutely void of Fruit Loops, and sleeping in til the blissful hour of seven.

I’d forgotten that sometimes work travel is hard, that things go wrong, or at least don’t go right, and that sometimes you work your ass off for 12 hours straight in a cloyingly hot uncomfortable tiny room without even a break for lunch. I forgot the weariness that you feel eating an overpriced appetizer off the late-night menu in a crappy hotel restaurant long after the other diners have departed, the frustration and exhaustion where you just really don’t care anymore and want to lay down and close your eyes but you still have to do your regular day job before you can collapse in a fitful haze while tourists holler at each other into the wee hours in the hallways.


And man, did I ever miss that kid. The Ta had a rough week with the newly nicknamed ‘Terror Tot’, who learned to open the back door, made The Ta cook 18 different menus for her, fell off the bed, refused to go to sleep, and generally was a 1-yr 11-mo old. Yep, as of this week, just one more month til The Bean is two! And, she’s still a crazy person, in case you thought she might have suddenly regained a state of normalcy. There was also a dry diaper scare Wednesday when Jelly just would not pee despite guzzling several gallons of fluid; happily, she finally had some soakers, but sadly, one of them was when she was suppose to be blissfully asleep. It’s agonizing getting the text messages, both the worrisome ones AND the pictures of her happily playing, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’ve had to leave her enough now that I am able to hold it together, but it’s still a long few days.

And I have to travel again in a month. *sigh*
I was spoiled there for a while. Now it looks like at least four, maybe more, months in a row where I'm gone for a week. Luckily the next visit will overlap with the grandparents being here for her party, so she'll get to hang out with them for most of the week while I'm back at corporate. But this product release is killing me. Someone, please hurry up and find me a nice, tall, dark-haired nerdy baby daddy with a good job so I can stay home and eat bonbons.

Ever wonder what an $18 dirty martini looks like? DELICIOUS is what it looks like.

This is BEFORE the pool had an inch of water in it, and The Ta caught her outside throwing books into it.

Just make yourself at home, Jenny.

Ms. D takes her to Marbles