Trying to be...
2003-07-22 - 8:54 a.m.
D is off again. The car came at 5:30 to whisk him to the mid-west where he will remain for a few days, then return home again. The joke is over, really.
Its funny, I used to love work related travel. Back in my 20's, when single, living the high faluting music biz lifestyle, it was great. I always planned my trips specifically. They had to meet two criteria -- a) is it a band I like? and b) do I have friends in the area, or is it an area I am interested in visiting? And if it met both, I was *there* in a heartbeat. After all, I loved music, and I couldn't afford to travel.
Traveling with the bands I loved was great. I had all the amenities of the road - expense account, backstage passes, rental car, plus total freedom. I think my favorite roadtrip was when I planned the southern tour -- flew in to Atlanta, and while I don't remember the exact plans, I know that I drove a lot -- through the Smokey Mountains (where they were quite shocked to see my purple hair at Shoneys!), I know I stopped in South Carolina (Columbia); I know I went to Jittery Joe's in Athens, GA; I know I was in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill for a bit. Did I do Tennasee in that trip too? Oh, they all blur together. I do remember bringing an empty suitcase with me, and I stopped at about a million AmVet's along the way -- amazing how cheap thrift store stuff is once you get out of NYC, where everything is marked up a million percent for the kitsch factor.
Another favorite was one of my trips to the Northwest. Again, I did a lot of driving (I-5 was my friend), but what a great way to see Seatle, Bellingham, Portland, Vancouver. I think that trip was planned around a personal endeavor as well -- I had a wedding to go to on the San Juan Islands and couldn't afford to travel to it. In a burst of brilliance, I told my bosses I just *had* to do a promotional trip to the Seattle/Vancouver area and presto! Airfare, paid for! Rental car, paid for! Expenses for the majority of the trip, paid for! Back in those days, when the music industry actually turned a profit, I was even able to put pot on my expense account ("miscellaneous expenses" is what my boss told me to put, since that is a difficult purchase to follow up with a reciept). I think the only thing I ended up paying out of pocket for the entire week was my accomodations for the wedding (and the gift, naturally)
I went to the Northwest often, actually, as that is where my friend mentioned a few days ago lived. He would travel with me, and that was great fun. Because really, the absurdities you encounter on the road are best when shared with another. Somehow of all the memories, watching a certain male singer/songwriter do air-karate chops in the middle of the Bellingham AmVet in time with the song "Kung Fu Fighting" is the most prevalent....
My road trip memories are great fun. The "rock star" life, the great people I met along the way, the thrift stores along the way. I don't regret one single bit of it all, and I have great stories to tell (though I don't go in to specifics often because I've always hated name-droppers).
But now that I'm older, removed from the business and happily settled, roadtrips don't hold the allure anymore. D is the same way. The perks of hotel life no longer enchant, and its preferable to sleep in your bed, to make your own coffee, to have full-size containers of shampoo and conditioner.
In the past, I've had entire relationships that develop and mature over the phone. Now I find it so hard to only have D available this way. When he is gone I miss the nonverbal parts about him, the cute way he looks at me, when I know he is paying attention but is silent. I miss the random kiss on the head, the "I'm getting something to drink, you want some?". Big expense account dinners no longer hold the "hey, I get to eat a kick-ass meal tonight!" appeal that they did when we were younger and struggling, because you know what? I can cook that kick ass meal now...and furthermore, we could afford it on our own without the damn expense account.
So yeah, the joke is over, and I"m ready for this summer's whirlwind tour of local offices to be over and to have D home for good.
