Rumors of My Demise (aka the Weekly Recap)

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The rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.  And I did not literally get trapped under a heavy object.  Although figuratively speaking, it has felt that way.

The reality has been that life this last week hit the apex of “crazy busy”.

I knew it would and should have planned for it – for the last few years, January and February have been my busiest months of the year already, largely due to client project cycles and the fixed timing of a couple of my volunteer commitments.  This year it was compounded by my car wreck (yes – car is still in the shop, no – it’s thankfully NOT totaled!) and something big happening in my professional life (big might be an understatement – potentially game changing is more like it).

For the last week, my main focus was on high school.  Specifically the annual Texas YMCA Youth & Government high school state conference.  I was in Austin from Wednesday through Sunday with boots on the ground as I co-lead the Model United Nations section.  For one week each year, I eat, sleep, and breathe MUN (Model UN) – although the sleep part of that is no more than 4-5 hours a night.  Mostly I run in heels, coach students, manage evaluators (it’s competitive, after all), shuffle a lot of paper, talk to parents and school administrators, hunt for bandaids and tampons, and get the pleasure watching a new crop of students ignite with a sudden passion for international affairs.

This year, I also wrote our Security Council crisis (a real-time world issue simulation requiring coordinated international community response)… and in true aviation geek style, it started with missing airplanes.  (Let’s just say that I was overjoyed to see some of the teen avgeeks in the room working through the flight trajectories, plane specifications, and airport statistics figure out that my calculations were on target for the simulation… details matter, y’all!!!)

Austin is a beautiful city where I have many friends – sadly, I didn’t get to see much of it or most of my friends except for those who volunteer with me.  I spent a ton of time with my Model UN co-leader and partner-in-crime – he was great enough to drive me down/back and we are pretty much inseparable during these conference weekends.  I took no photos, but if you are hankering for some great Austin photos, check out Andy’s Travel Blog – he was apparently down there too!

This week I’ll complete the last of my three consecutive weekend’s of volunteer travel and I’ll attempt to venture into the Chicago blizzard tomorrow for work!

Last week was light for me on the writing front – between Model UN and work craziness and the Super Bowl, I spent very little time online.  If you missed my story on airline infidelity, then the news that I’m flying Delta now might be new to you.  I also shared my thoughts on eating in cars (aka my secret shame) and how to dress like a celebrity jetsetter.

Now that I’ve caught up on my sleep, I’ve got some catching up to do.  I’m committing to wrapping up my 2014 reports (hotel and cruise) within the next 30 days.  And seeing how much travel I have coming, it will be high time to get started on 2015 posthaste!

xoxo

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