The Guilty(free) Pleasure of Business Travel

I have a business trip later this week.  I'm flying to Washington D.C. on Thursday for meetings on Friday, then I'm going to spend the evening and half of Saturday with a close friend who lives in Bethesda before I fly back.  I love my business trips.  They don't happen very often - the last time out was 4 days in Boston in August, and that's about the longest time period I'm gone for.  But I love the time to myself, room service and most of all the quiet.  No one yelling "Mom", no one asking for a ride, a drink, a meal. It was an even bigger break for me when the kids were smaller because of the intensity of the work, but even now that the youngest is 10, and everyone is much more independent, I still cherish the time.  And even though I work full time, I refuse to feel guilty about it.  This is pretty much an open secret, the NY Times had a front page story in November "Working Mothers Find Peace on the Road".

Here's the summary from the abstract, you'd have to pay to see the whole article:

"Mothers who have to travel on business often enjoy delicious, though sometimes guilty, pleasure of peaceful evenings in hotels, reading, relaxing and sleeping without incessant demands of young children; portfolio manager Lucia Skwarek, publicist Cheryl Squadrito and others say they savor rare time for themselves, even if separations are emotionally fraught"

I wouldn't call my separations emotionally fraught, just a fair amount of rolling eyes and a little bit of whining when I told everyone.  And I always seem to have to tell them about 3 times before it sinks in.  I remember when my oldest son was a baby and I'd have an overnight trip I'd leave these long, detailed instructions.  That lasted a few months before I realized my husband wasn't an idiot and he owed it to himself to figure everything out - no one was going to die or starve.  I also find these trips an opportunity to go "outside of myself", sometimes even go a little nuts. Nothing dangerous, I just remember a New Orleans trip about 8 years ago staying up all night, drinking out of test tubes, and a Miami weekend maybe 4 years ago where I rented a red mustang convertible - the ultimate non-mom car.  In New York, I bought broker seats to see Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in "The Producers" for a price a colleague said would have "bought me a pair and a half of Prada shoes".   Well the evening was worth every penny and I have wide feet anyway.

But honestly those times are rare, it mostly means just quiet, down time, time for me that I rarely get.  I usually skip the gym and go on long walks in the city, read voraciously and maybe catch a movie in the room.  I went to the bookstore yesterday and stocked up, and I'm going to grab a couple of DVDs to bring along. Of course I'll bring back presents, and I'm going to be flying home for a week of work plus helping almost every night till 10 as my son's latest show goes into tech and dress rehearsals...so I hope I can stockpile some extra energy and relaxation from my little 3 day get-a-way.