Traveling Fool

The first half of the year has been a quiet one for me in terms of travel - intentionally.  Between my surgery in January and my CFA study schedule, I avoided traveling as much as possible this winter/spring!  I ended up only having to do 4 works trips from January - July:  a trip to Chicago, 2 trips to Charlotte and one to Denver.

Well, that is a-changing.  And I am actually happy about it.  I would prefer to backload my travel into the 2nd half of the year.  It's just far too stressful to travel while studying for the CFA!  This weekend kicks off a string of trips, and luckily I get to kick my travel season off with a fun trip!  This weekend I'll be heading to St. Louis to visit Nora and participate in a weekend of pre-wedding festivities!

After my St. Louis trip, I will be doing 3 different trips to random cities in Pennyslvania where I'll be co-presenting at some client events.  Oh and the presentation we are giving is 3 HOURS LONG.  Dear God, whose idea was that (it wasn't ours!).  I'm also sprinkling in a trip to Chicago for an office visit + client visits.  Luckily that trip is coinciding with my niece's first birthday party.  Score!  I love combining business with pleasure.  :)

Then it's back to St. Louis in early October for Nora's wedding!  After that, I'm not sure...  I am doing what is called a "Road Show" in my line of business, which means I am going around and visiting all of our sales offices, promoting what my group does, getting to know the sales reps, and doing some client meetings.  So in the next 4 months, I plan to visit Boston, Nashville, Dallas, Orlando, LA, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, Denver, and possibly Salt Lake City and Phoenix.  And probably Charlotte at some point.  Luckily I feel a lot more comfortable in my position than I did a year ago when I started to amp up my travel - and I am not battling non-stop sinus infections.  So I am actually excited for these road show trips!  They are coming at a good time as I think being out of the office right now will be good for me.  I am hoping to spend the weekend in a couple of the cities, like Boston and the San Francisco/Sacramento area, and I want to try to visit Austin when I am in Dallas as my friend just moved there from Phoenix.

I'm excited to fly out tonight for St. Louis tonight - I haven't seen Nora since I visited her in Wisconsin last September!  Kind of crazy to think it's been almost a year since I've seen her!  I'll be attending her wedding shower and bachelorette party, both of which should be a blast! 

Have a great weekend - I am so glad it's a long one for us Americans and Canadians!!  I fly back Sunday night and am so glad I have Monday off as I leave Tuesday for my first trip to Pennsylvania and will be there until Thursday. I will need some downtime before that trip as it will be a bit tiring.  I'll have lots of windshield time with my new boss as we travel to these random towns in Pennsylvania...  I guess we will really get to know each other on this trip. 

How will you be spending this (long) weekend?