June 17, 2011
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I am in a most unusual position….sitting alone in a hotel room. Thinking this might be the very first time this has ever happened. I don’t quite know what I think about it.
Our five-year-old granddaughter rode with me and has been deposited at home. She was a little angel while visiting us this week, very sweet and much more grown up than I was ready to realize. Lucy will be six in August. Where do the years go, as they fly past and are gone?
I had a whirlwind morning, preparing to be gone for the weekend. Forty-eight short hours, two-hundred-forty miles, but really, it might as well have been across the country. So many things must be readied. Flowers and garden watered, laundry finished, messages attended to, reminders about the chickens left on the kitchen counter, clothes packed (Lucy’s and mine), a pair of pants hemmed at the last minute (probably won’t even need them), a good lunch fixed for the farmboy (“This will have to last me ALL weekend,” he moaned, grinning), a last minute shower, then everything packed into the car, including snacks and water bottles, crayons and coloring book, story books, a doll, a stuffed animal, pillow pet and blankie, and hopefully everything I need, and by the time we pulled out of the driveway, I needed only one thing…a nap.
Five hours and we arrived. And now here I am, one meeting under my belt, and now a comfy bed awaits. But what am I doing? Feeling slightly lonely, even though I’m surrounded by hundreds of people and at least one dog (do they allow those here????)
I realize that my life is such a universe away from that of so many women, the ones who wear heels and business suits and carry briefcases and hop planes weekly and make their travel arrangements with quick little clicks on their smart little hand-held things. The ones who make crucial business decisions and it affects the bottom line of some big corporation. Me? I listen to whipporwills at night instead of the ding of the elevator, and my bottom line is most significantly affected by my grocery bill. So I feel like I’m pretending tonight…pretending to feel at home on the twelfth floor of a huge hotel, pretending to not mind going down into the parking garage alone, pretending to be something I’m not. Very much a fish out of water…or a hillbilly in the city, all alone…
I love the group I’m with, and I love being a part of something bigger than myself in that it enables me to do some things I couldn’t do on my own. Tomorrow will be busy and filled with meaningful work, and at the end of the weekend I’ll be so glad I came. Just thinking now that maybe I should have brought my own blankie…
Comments (6)
Cool. I hope you enjoy your event. I usually spend a couple of weeks a year in hotel rooms. It’s not like home, but I get a lot of free soaps and tiny shampoos. I collect Do Not Disturb signs and paper my cubicle with them.
Awww. . . I remember the first time I stayed alone in a hotel room – I had taken Amanda back to college, that time without anyone accompanying me for the need to stay overnight. It was a little strange. . . Now, I love it! I spread all my stuff out, I pull out my needlework, and best of all – if/when I wake up in the middle of the night, I can turn on a light and read without worrying about disturbing anyone!
Give me hillbilly living instead of city living any ole day. I prefer bare feet to heels as well!
I have done both and love the experience of listening to the birds and the experience of aloneness for just a little while of a hotel room all to myself. The scariest hotel was in Atlanta with HUGE room and HIGH ceilings. A lovely hotel really but I wanted someone to wait by the door while I checked the closet and under the bed. lol
I enjoy traveling, tho’ usually have a companion or two to travel with. It’s more fun when you can share the experience. I lived a life of high heels, business meetings and a lot of self-important people before moving to the hills. Wouldn’t go back for anything. Love the peace and down-to-earth people in these here hills.
Enjoy your conference. A change of pace does all of us good.