Sunday, July 24, 2011

Come Fly With Me....It's a Good Life

I would love to use this as an excuse for my lack of posting of late, but the truth is, I'm not sure what has been holding it up...a lack of general creativity perhaps?  But what I will say is my life is much different these days than it was only 6 months ago.

The MERGER is nearly a done deal.  And by that I don't mean the signed deal which was completed two years ago this month.  I mean the INTEGRATION, which from here on in will be a capital letter and dirty word from my perspective.  If MERGERs bring polar opposite feelings of anticipation and fear, INTEGRATION delivers on both with a healthy dose of frustration, powerlessness, confusion, and in the end, you are either in a better position than you started or a worse position....but you are never the same.

I am in a "better position" career wise, but I'm also working harder than I ever thought possible to get to the end of each day and each week.  I have a great team of people made up of individuals from both organizations, and I've managed to keep my VP/Boss while Boss Lady and I are now equalized.  My "better position" requires a lot of moving around.  Small moves like running in and out of Manhattan every couple weeks for meetings, and big moves like Europe every few months for conferences or events, and continuing moves like the one I take today which is the constant back and forth from NY to Denver. 

I have been to Denver nearly ever other week since early May.  Every. Other. Week.  It's not a brutal trip - about 3.5 hour flight which is quite doable even in the cheap seats, but it's a bit boring and I'm not sure it helps me to make progress on the actual work on my desk that can help the company succeed.  I'm learning some agility.  I'm learning how to pack and not get anxious about forgetting things.  I've definitely learned to rent my own car while on the road rather than rely on others or just do car services.  And I've learned about the fast food to fine dining choices in the Highlands Ranch area of Denver.  Denver is Mecca for my company - being the U.S. headquarters. And it's an interesting turnaround for me as I always worked in headquarters and had people fly to me!

In today's day and age with internet, video conferencing, and cost constraints (not to mention carbon footprinting), it amazes me that there is this insistence that I be there in person for so many things.  But as long as they don't make me uproot my life and move there (and really, there hasn't even been a whisper of that so far), I'll keep flying the friendly skies back and forth. 

Over the next couple of weeks Hubby and I will be ships passing in the night...he is off now golfing and by the time he returns I'll be on my way to the airport.  Then I return late Thursday night (really Friday wee hours) and he leaves Friday AM for a weekend convention returning Sunday night.  I leave Monday AM for a quick overnight trip to Syracuse and return Tuesday night, and then we have my mom arriving for a long weekend/birthday celebration, and as she leaves on Monday, so do I, off again to Denver for 4 more days. 

This is my life.

And really, should I complain?  I have a loving and understanding husband.  We have two jobs that are stable and paying the mortgage and all the services (lawn, housecleaning, etc) that help us lead this busy life.  We have food in the fridge.  A new Ethan Allen couch.  A (knock wood) healthy family.  And our military family members are thus far in friendly posts. 

Tripping back and forth to Denver is the least I can do to earn this good life we have.

1 comment:

A's Mom said...

At least they're not making you move there.