The Torturous Mile

Ted and I follow the old saying "Early to bed, early to rise" quite literally. We are normally in bed by between 9:00 and 10:00 most evenings--weekends we may try to live it up a bit and push it closer to 11:00. We like to be awake during the week by 6:00, weekends closer between 8:00 and 9:00. In fact, if I sleep in much later, I tend to be angry, feeling like I lost part of the day to a useless task.

So, with that in mind, here I sit, 10:30 at night, in New York City, in a cushy little hotel room where, if I lean back against my pillows right now, I can look out my window and see the JVC Globe in Times Square and the lights of the HUGE LCD screen (no, building). Most normal people my age would be out and about, with a free ticket to buy drinks for their friends at the trade show, all on the company's dollar.

I passed up dinner at an Italian restaurant to come back to my room and indulge in room service, followed by my obligatory mile run. My first free moment of the day came at 10:00 this evening, and a mile run outside was not what I had in mind. I bit the bullet and did the treadmill. And realized, yet again, how much I hate the treadmill. Two minutes in and I'm swearing I'm finished, not sure how this 10:30 min/mile I'm groaning out can possibly be harder than the 8:00 min/miles I've been yanking from somewhere when I'm outside.

So tomorrow morning will find me up and out on the streets of New York. I love running in the city. I love the feeling that I'm exploring, I love the puzzle of figuring out where I am going and getting back, and I love the portrayal I have of a native (most times on these runs I am stopped at least once and asked for directions...and three-quarters of those times I can actually answer them!).

The sad thing is the traveling is part of my job I like the least. I am tired of dragging booths and signs around, lugging suitcases and bags of laptops, wires, cell phones, and who knows what else on trains, and having to argue my case with new supervisors who don't understand the business, don't trust me to do my job, or both. I have dreaded this trip for awhile, and I'm thanking my lucky stars it's only a two-day trip and I can go home tomorrow.

Back to my normal routine if early bedtime, early alarm, supper at 6:00, and routine television shows. If variety is the spice of life, then you could say that I like my life dull and bland. But I like it, and that's really all that matters.