Two City Living

As is my pattern right now, I alternate between my home office (White Plains NY) and the corporate headquarters (Denver CO) a few other location trips in between.   I've been traveling nearly every other week for the past several months.  In the process I've started to learn a few things about two city living.

1. Always travel with your GPS.  Even though it is one more clunky electronic device to get through security, it is a must when you are in a strange city.  Of course, my family would say it is a must for me even it my home city since I am...um...directionally challenged.  And I freely admit it is true.  My Tom-Tom is my friend.
2. Get smart about packing.  This week I decided to go buy some low-budget but servicable work outfits here in Denver (Thank You Target) and also a portable wardrobe storage closet (Thank You IKEA) and leave them in the Denver office.  Using Hotel laundry and dry-cleaning services 24 hours before check-out means I can easily leave behind a week's worth of clean clothes and can travel with a little week-ender bag.
3. Go electronic.  My laptop weighs a ton...but what really breaks my back is all the paperwork.  This week, I observed one of the executive assistants in our Denver office using an unusal pen.  Turns out it is a very special device indeed, which allows you to record everything you write and store it electronically. I immediately placed an order and envision I will be traveling with much less paper and file records in the future.  I'm sure I'll devote a future post to the "Live Scribe" system (http://www.livescribe.com/)
4. Sleep when you can.  Although there is a two hour difference, I rarely suffer from jet lag and adjust pretty quickly.  However, I do find that I sleep less.  A lot less.  I go to bed late, I get up early, and I have wierd middle of the night wakefulness.  I've taken to ordering a pay per view movie - not to watch - but to put me to sleep....and I think I wake up when the movie stops. So, I'm trying to learn to really go down for sleep early to try and get the 6 hours a night I need to be upright (if not function at a high level).
5. Re-entry can be bumpy.  I often fiind no matter how much I really really really can't wait to get home to my honey and my kitty and my own bed I often walk in the door in a crap-ass mood.  I think it may have something to do with that week-long wierd sleep thing, high-tension work, high altitude dehydration, and my natural beeyotch self.

So in a little more than 24 hours I'll be home (oops, that reminds me - gotta get my boarding pass!).