Tuesday 20 July 2010

Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom.

AbsI used to dream of a glamorous job with lots and lots of travel. I dreamed of living from a suitcase, of knowing the TSA agents by name, of having a favorite coffee place in every city.

In my dreams it was a job, because everything in my dreams is a job. I counted down the days to age 16, not because my driver's license, but because I could officially get on a payroll somewhere. I could officially use my time to earn money.

I've had many jobs since the first at age 16, but I've been at my current one for over six years. That's a general life record for me, only outlived by my residency in this great golden state, and the length of some of my greatest friendships. And I love this job so much. I've passed up other things in these years like being an investigatory reporter, but in the end I circle back to my job that I love.

And while I've managed to grab a trip or two a year out of my workplace--hardly enough to get me free business class upgrades--it really did lack this one dream of mine, this travel one, this life of glamor. But I worked harder and I stretched farther and I grew and grew and grew until suddenly one day I was needed in five places at once.

And so it is too hard to answer the question where would I go because my whole map is green and only a wittle bit blue, and instead I'll tell you where I'm going between today and December 1:

Portland
Sacramento
Dayton (!)
Maryland
Washington, D.C. (!)
Witchita
Dallas
Atlanta (!)
Orlando

It might not sound glamorous to you, Witchita and Dallas are rarely green dots, but I have never been there and someone else is paying me to go there and they have coffee there and airports and maybe even business class upgrades. I am living the dream.

7 comments:

mysterygirl! said...

Yay, DC!

Jennie said...

That might be the only time anyone has ever put an exclamation mark after Dayton. Hee. SO EXCITED.

Also, your title makes me want to go to Iowa right now.

eclectic said...

Yay Portland!

"Witchita" is a typo, right? It's actually spelled, "Wenatchee" -- we get that ALL the time. But what I wonder is why it doesn't have an exclamation point! ;)

Ashley said...

Are you going to be one of those fancy people who get frequent flier miles?

Heather Anne Hogan said...

The ones with exclamation points are my favorite!

Also, I miss the traveling lovers.

Heather Anne Hogan said...

(You promised me back on '06 that they were going to end up happy!)

linster said...

Is something good happening in Dallas that I need to know about? Other than you being here, I mean.