January 9, 2012
It’s Monday morning. I’m awake early, packing the last of my bag and getting ready to fly out for the week. A quick cup of coffee with my husband, a kiss goodbye with a promise to call when I land, and I’m out the door.
Wait … it’s not me this morning heading to the airport, it’s my husband. And I’m staying home!
Oh, this is weird.
While my husband also travels a lot, he usually flies out later in the week and we’ll both be gone from home. I’ve held the Monday morning departure time in our house for years. And rarely am I ever home for a full week.
So I dropped him at the airport this morning, shared a kiss goodbye and he promised to call when he lands. I drove home and came into a very quiet house. I got a pot of coffee brewing and then looked around and said “Now what?”
An entire week at home. Doing dishes and laundry vs. having maid service. Standing at the kitchen counter to eat instead of going out for client dinners. Dressing Florida-casual instead of business casual. Having my laptop on the lanai poolside vs. sitting in conference rooms. Ah … now this I’m gonna love!
So while my husband is off at the Consumer Electronic Show this week in Vegas, I’ll be getting to know what it’s like to be waiting for a call in the evenings when he gets back to his hotel room. I’ll share what I got accomplished at home during the day and tell him the dog is doing fine. And I’ll be asking later in the week “What time does your flight arrive home, dear?”
Yes, this is very weird.
Posted by Carol Margolis under Relationships |
February 24, 2011
Moms + Breastfeeding + Travel = challenge. This great post at the Wall Street Journal blog site ‘The Juggle’ (WSJ.com on choices and tradeoffs people make as they juggle work and family) is a great resource if you’re breastfeeding an infant and now need to make a road trip. Planning ahead is a must, and both you and your baby will get through it.
Business Travel While Breastfeeding
Posted by Carol Margolis under Relationships, Travel |
February 21, 2011
Seems my husband is missing. Or maybe I am.
It was great being home for a couple weeks around Christmas but after that, the road was calling. That means companionship time suffers.
The travel season began in early January. Off to chilly Scotland for me but my husband and I had a great meetup in Ireland. Lots of fun but all too brief.
February was busy for me, beginning in Houston and back to Scotland, adding Norway to the itinerary. This month ends with me in New York and him in San Diego. No time for home but my husband and I did meet at a hotel for one weekend in Los Angeles. But hey, at least it was Valentine’s Day weekend.
March is another busy travel month but we will meet up for a few days in Chicago (Travel Goods Show!).
Ah April, finally some time at home for me. But wait, hubby is gone. He will be in China nearly the whole month. Hmm, my crystal ball is showing me on a road trip to China for a long weekend meetup.
Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Random Thoughts, Relationships |
July 11, 2010
As I go through my Sunday ritual getting ready for tomorrow’s business trip, I wonder how a woman’s preparations for business travel differ from a man’s.
Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Relationships, Travel |
April 27, 2010
Think your dog or cat knows when you’re leaving town? I do! My dog Toby stands stoically in the living room, his head tilted, watching me as I go from bedroom to front door with my luggage, laptop tote and coffee cup in hand. He seems to know when I’m in a hurried mode as I try to get everything done before heading out of town. I grab a doggie treat for him, my way of relieving my mommy guilt for saying good-bye for a few days.
What’s Toby thinking about, I wonder? Is he going to miss me or is he worried about where he’s going to be shipped off to? Or is he hoping that he gets to go in the C-A-R also (we can’t say that word out loud unless he’s really going for a car ride).
Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Relationships, Travel |
March 4, 2010
The good news is that my Mom usually knows where I’m traveling to. The not-so-good news is that she doesn’t learn my whereabouts from me … not directly anyway.
My mom finds out what parts of the globe I’m in by reading my ezine, Pearl of Travel Wisdom. I send out this ezine every week to thousands around the globe. Mom will read this when she gets around to checking her email and she’ll then know where I’m at this week or where I’ve just been, and maybe where I’m heading.
When I stop to contemplate this latest way of keeping in touch with my mom, I want to be laugh and cry.
- Cry because an ezine isn’t the way a daughter should let her mom know where she’s at. What has this world come to that it’s easier to update a fan page, post a tweet or send an ezine than it is to make the time to call Mom from my hotel room?
- Laugh because it’s great to know that Mom is sufficiently tech-savvy (ok, this is being generous!) to join the new way of online life. Mom will never, ever be a Facebook friend or a Twitter follower, but she’s ok with email. It helps that my ezine is available directly within the body of my email. If it was in Adobe, the ‘open an attachment’ thing would be an issue.
So while I cross the continental U.S. this week and spend time in three cities before heading home for a few days, my Mom will feel some comfort in knowing where I’m at and where I’m heading because she has my ezine. She also likes the photos I include, and she really likes when I include a Featured Smart Women Traveler.
And just so you don’t think I’m a really horrible daughter, I actually do talk on the phone with my Mom. And I travel with her a few times each year. I may not call her every week, but I do call each time that I’m home on a Sunday night. I walk the dog while she and I talk, and her first question to me is always, “And where are you now?”
To see how Mom finds out where I’m at, see this week’s Pearls of Travel Wisdom ezine.
Posted by Carol Margolis under Relationships |
March 2, 2010
I loved the movie Up in the Air. George Clooney made business travel look so easy – maybe even glamorous – whisking through airports; arriving at his hotel with no check-in lines as the scene simply cuts to him relaxing in a hotel room.
Great movie but it was far from reality. Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling, but it is hardly easy. What are the downsides to traveling every week? Let me count the ways … Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Hotel Living, Relationships, Television & Movies, Travel |
February 16, 2010
Research shows that 40-50% of business travelers are women. Many times each year, women dash out their front doors, luggage wheels spinning behind them, waving goodbye to their loved ones as they head out on another business trip.
I am part of this statistic. Last year I traveled 48 weeks of the year. During these 48 weeks, Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Relationships |
February 4, 2010
Many of us save our air miles and hotel points for that special international trip or for retirement when we dream of having lots of time (and hopefully money!) to travel. In a perfect world, the day we expire is the day we’re on a trip enjoying the last of our rewards. But chance are, there may be a few miles, or million miles, in your account when you head to your permanent vacation spot in the skies.
So can you will your miles to someone else? Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Current Affairs, Health, Random Thoughts, Relationships |
July 2, 2009
As we are now in summer vacation season, sharing a great idea from Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul books and The Success Principles, seems appropriate. And Jack was happy to let me share this idea with you.
His idea is for a family to create a Memory a Year, a memory so big and memorable that your family will remember it forever (it works with friends also). This memory could be on an incredible vacation idea or an unforgettable local event and it doesn't need to be a huge financial burden … just make it big and outrageous and memorable! The example that Jack used was of a family who planned a car trip across the country. They decided to pull the car over whenever they saw a body of water and jump in! Out of the car they'd hop and into the water they'd jump. Whether it was a pond, river, lake, or pool, the family jumped in. How fun, and what a great memory! Since I live in Florida with countless alligator-inhabited lakes, this wouldn't be my first idea of a great plan, but what the memory is doesn't matter. What matters is that an outrageous memory for each year is created, a memory that you can reminisce about forever. These memories can be made with your spouse, kids, girlfriends, or anyone you'd like to reminisce with.
Much of the fun is in the planning of the outrageous memory. How fun it would be each week to give the kids an assignment to come up with ideas, start the planning, get the maps put together, etc.
When Jack shared this story, I immediately thought of how wonderful an idea this was for traveling wives and moms. The guilt we load up on our shoulders over not being with our family at all times is heavy. Yet this idea is so easy and so fun and such a great way to focus on the anticipation and carry-through of an annual event, the guilt load may possibly lighten up. My adult kids and I can reminisce over past vacations or family events, but hearing this idea makes me wish I could relive the years when my kids were younger so that we'd have special great memories from each year.
Some ideas to get you started….
- A charity walk for the entire family to train, fundraise and walk in. Get t-shirts for everyone in the family.
- A trip to a city based on the alphabet … Year 1, select a city beginning with the letter 'A', the next year select a city starting with 'B', etc …
- A different mode of transportation each year (hot air balloon, helicopter)
- A friends-weekend with several couples, with lots of game-playing with our childhood favorites (Parcheesi or Twister, anyone?)
Be sure to put together a photo album (online or print) for each year's outrageous memory. Use the photos in family calendars that you create for the new year. Have 'reminiscing' talks frequently to bring back the memorable feelings, and start planning the next Memory a Year!
Thanks, Jack, for letting us share this story with our members.
Traveling women, please share your stories with us of your outrageous annual memories!
Jack Canfield is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar brand Chicken Soup for the Soul. The New York Times #1 best-selling book series has more than 200 titles in print and over 100 million copies sold in 41 languages. As an internationally recognized leader in personal development and peak performance strategies, Jack has spent the last 35 years teaching millions of people how to up-level everything they do. His bestselling book, The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be contains dozens of the most powerful secrets to success used by top achievers from all walks of life.
Posted by Carol Margolis under Relationships |
June 29, 2009
Today's post is by guest blogger and traveling mom, Phaedra Cucina.
What a treat to spend the day with smart women travelers! I’d first like to thank Carol, not only for hosting me today but for creating this wonderful site. I find it to be a great resource, and I’m sure you do too. Today, we’re talking about one of the more inevitable career challenges for working moms – the business trip. Whether you are one, or have them on your team, there’s no doubt, business trips are a touchy issue in most homes and offices. Often trips start with tearful goodbyes from the children, and the nightly calls don’t always go so well either. Kids can certainly tug at your heartstrings and heap extra helpings of worry onto your already guilty conscious. To make matters worse, those few moms who don’t feel guilty about their time away often tell me they feel guilty about not feeling guilty! Let’s put a stop to this self-inflicted nonsense!
Traveling on business is GOOD for kids – and for mom! Here are just a few reasons why:
At Home:
· Kids and the grown-up taking care of them get special bonding time together that simply isn’t possible when you’re at home
· Kids learn to be more reliant and gain self-confidence (this does require a certain degree of proper preparation, which we can talk about in another post)
· The grown-up in charge gains a special appreciation for everything you do while you’re home, and vice versa
On the Road:
· You get a rare, uninterrupted night’s sleep!
· You get to walk through the airport with only your own bags to worry about, stroller-free, nicely dressed, with perhaps even a hot latte in hand!
· You get to catch up on your reading!
· You get to be so thankful that the crying kid on the plane is not yours!
· You get grown-up conversation over dinner, hopefully with your girlfriends living in whatever part of the country/world you’re visiting!
· You get to give yourself a mani and pedi in the hotel room!
· You get to watch a movie – of your own choice!
· You can get your inbox under control while on the plane/train!
· You can call a long lost friend or family member!
· You can organize your computer files, playlists, and photos!
· You can workout!
· You can REST!
The choice is always yours – you can sit in your hotel room, worried about what’s going on at home and the office, or enjoy this special opportunity to treat yourself to whatever simple pleasure strikes you in the moment.
What’s one of your favorite things about business, or kid-free, travel? What do you think you will do (or not do!) to make your next trip more rewarding?
Posted by traveling mom, Phaedra Cucina, author of the children’s book, My Mommy’s on a Business Trip.
Posted by Carol Margolis under Relationships |
