A Sort Of Vacation

I write this blog from Cincinnati.  My wife, kids and I are here to attend the Midwest Home School Convention.  The wife is excited because (for some reason) she likes homeschool conventions.  We have attended the one in Indianapolis several times and we even attended one while in Texas (though it pales in comparison to the Midwest conventions).  This is the first time we have travelled out of state (well the state we were living in) to attend one and this is the first time that we have brought the kids along.  The kids are just excited that the hotel has an indoor pool.

Cincinnati is 3 hours away from our house give or take and (unfortunately) involved being in the enclosed area know as our minivan.  The kids used to travel well, or I should say great.  They made the 15 hour trip to Texas on multiple occasions with little complaints.  But something happened to them in the past year or so that turned them from travelling buddies into antagonistic foes.  We threatened and implied punishment but only when we put pool time on the table did they straighten up (pity we waited for 2 hours before we brought out the heavy hammer).

Attending this event means taking time off from work, something I don’t do very well.  This is partly due to my inability to allow others to do my work and partly due to the fact that I do not know how to enjoy leisure.  I was chatting with my back up at work just before logging off this afternoon (I only took a 1/2 day vacation today) and he suggested that we get some SkyLine Chili while we were in Cincinnati.  I told him that I would eat some on his behalf but had no real intention of doing so.  However, when we pulled into our hotel lot we noticed a SkyLine Chili a 1/4 mile down the road.  I told the wife of my conversation with my co-worker and just like that the dinner selection was made.

None of us had ever tried this chili before so it was a new experience.  Everyone else ordered Cheese Coneys but I opted for Chili 5-way.  Either my co-worker had talked up this chili too much or it really just isn’t that good but either way we were not impressed.  There was a bonus though in that they were offering 1 free Cheese Coney per person in celebration of opening day for the Cincinnati Reds baseball season.  So, even though the food only filled us up but did not satisfy us, we did not pay full price.

Based on the fact that my next 2 days will be filled with wandering around the Duke Energy Convention Center and attending workshops with kids in tow followed up by another 3 hour ride home in the van with the kids (without the ability to threaten removing pool privileges), I think (sadly) the chili might be the highlight of my “vacation”.

Jon

Filling The Void

When I first was approached with the idea of going to Romania for a week in March I had a bad feeling about the timing.  Due to the timeline of a project at work I knew that the first 2 weeks of March was out of the question.  That left (by process of elimination) the last 2 weeks.  I knew that the project that the trip revolved around had some key dates in early April.  My gut told me that the 3rd full week of March was going to be the timeline of the trip.  Therein lies the problem for (as [bad] luck would have it) that was the week of my wedding anniversary.  This (of course) made informing the wife of this trip much harder.

The good news about travelling on the company dime is that everything is paid for and you get to see new places and meet new people.  When I say everything is paid for I mean almost everything.  There are expenses that cannot be expensed (as it were).  One of these is the extra amount of money that would need to be spent on my anniversary due to being gone on the actual anniversary date.  This would include ordering wine with the dinner (something we seldom do) and an appetizer (something we occasionally do).  If you take the amount that I would have to spend (now that the celebration would not be on the actual date) and subtract the normal budgeted amount for an anniversary dinner (or whatever) you have the “extra” expense I am speaking of that cannot be expensed to the company but is actually due to the company asking me to go on this trip (I think I could have said that better but I hope you get the point).

Anyway, last night the aunt arrived to watch the kids and the wife and I headed out to dinner.  The food was awesome, the company was great (in case you are not following closely, I mean my wife) and all was well.  But…

Let me tell you about my wife’s enemy.  She has few enemies but this would be her main enemy.  The enemies name is Silence and the wife has been fighting her since long before I first met her.  My wife views Silence as something that must be attacked (offensively) whenever it is met or found.  I sometimes sit back in awe (silently as there is no room for me to speak) at my wife’s ability to talk, non-stop, for long durations of time.  Even though silence is a large gulf of space she continually throws shovels of words at it in an attempt to fill this unending void.  The trip to the restaurant was about 45 minutes and she killed it off without even trying too hard.  She also (despite fighting the effects of one glass of wine) held her enemy at bay for the entire trip home as well.

This need of hers to fill the void is a long standing (14 years last Tuesday by the way) joke between us.  We will be on a 30 minute drive in the car and (after talking for 27 minutes of it) I will “inform” her that she “only” has 3 minutes to go to accomplish the goal (I guess) of filling all the Silence for the entire trip.  This is always met with “the look” followed quickly by (at least) 3 more minutes of talking.

Now, I am not necessarily a fan of Silence (though at times it serves a purpose) but I prefer to fill it with music or talk radio (when I am in the car at least).  One time early in our marriage the wife came home from work to find me sitting on the couch with no TV or music on (and I think the lights were out) and it took a while to convince her that nothing was wrong with me.  I decided not to do that again (such was the pain of having to explain that Silence was not always bad – she was unconvinced).

In recent months I have been promoting the idea of a “Silent Saturday” at our house.  The idea is that we (the four of us living in our house) would not communicate verbally for an entire Saturday.  I think it would be cool, the wife sees it as a way of letting the enemy into the house.  Words cannot express how against this idea she really is.  I offered to only have Silence until noon, she would not agree.  I offered the option that only I would be silent (which, let’s be honest here, would not be much of a difference) but even then she did not like the idea.  I guess carrying 100% of the conversation (instead of the usual 98%) is just too much for her.

OK, that is enough picking on the wife.  In 14 years of marriage I have found her to be the perfect yin to my yang.  I found myself talking about her way too much while on my trip to Romania.  I am sure that the Romanians were quite tired of hearing about my awesome wife and all my methods for trying to keep her happy and showing her that I love her.  Whether it was during a training presentation, while sitting around the dinner table at a restaurant or while sitting in the lobby of the hotel, those around me got an earful of my wonderful wife.

Honey, despite my constant blogs that would suggest otherwise, I love you.

Jon

Almost Home

I only have a few moments here while waiting for my final flight from Chicago to Indianapolis.  I am very tired and was not able to sleep much on the flight from Munich.  Those international jets are huge.  I would estimate that the one I was on held 450 easy.  Getting from the arrival gate to the departure gate is crazy here.  I bet if you add all the time it took to get form plane to plane for my previous 3 flights it would not equal this leg of my journey.  No matter, I am here now at my gate and ready to get home to my wife an kids who will be anticipating my arrival in about 90 minutes.  I am looking forward to seeing them of course but right now my body is only yearning for my bed.  I am probably 3 hours away from that at the time of writing this blog (there is no free wi-fi here so who knows when I will have the work laptop booted up again to post my last few blogs.  Well, college basketball is on the TV here in terminal B21 so I think I will log off for now.

Jon

Two Flights To Go

Well I have an hour to kill here in Munich.  There were announcements on the plane that passengers on flights going to the US might experience delays as the security process was time consuming.  I am not sure what they are talking about as I flew through what few checkpoints there were.  Perhaps since I am a US citizen or on a connecting flight (or both) that warning did not apply.  Either way, I sit here in gate H08 with my fellow Chicago bound passengers killing time.

I arrived at the Bucharest airport about 90 minutes before my flight (which was the recommendation of my co-workers here).  I did not have a boarding pass so I had to get in the long line to check my luggage.  I was behind 20 or so Japanese (I think) men who were all travelling together as a group.  It seemed that only a few of them spoke English so the process of getting their luggage checked (and there was a lot of luggage) took a while.  Then it was on to the Romanian version of TSA.  I was still behind the gaggle of Japanese travelers and trying to explain that belts must be taken off and that laptops had to be out of their bags was (to say the least) interesting to watch.  Once they were through, I flew through and then needed to decide what to spend my extra Romanian currency on.  I wanted to bring some home of course but not all of it.  I settled on (after applying the exchange rate in my head) a $3+ bottle of water and a $2+ candy bar.  Use it or lose it I guess (well not “lose it” since I would still have it but since Romanian currency is not much good in the US it might as well be true).

After in the air, the flight attendants (who were impressively multi-lingual) served us some sort of sandwich (ham, I think, I didn’t ask as I was hungry and was not going to be picky) and then drinks.  In all domestic flights I have been on, you could pay for beer or wine (or something stronger) but there was a fee.  On the way over her and on this flight there appeared to be no charge.  I did not matter as I just wanted coffee (plus, how could I choose the right wine if I didn’t know what I was eating?).

This upcoming flight to Chicago is a doozy clocking in at 10 minutes shy of 10 hours.  Then I have 2 hours in Chicago and then a 1 hour flight to Indianapolis.  I have to check my baggage and go through customs in Chicago so I am glad to have the 2 hours just in case.

Well it appears that boarding is getting ready to be announced so I had better finish this up.

Jon

Time To Go

Well, my week here is almost over.  In about an hour I will hop in a taxi and head to the Bucharest International Airport and begin the journey home.  I will save last night’s activities for another blog (spoiler alert, it involves my first attempt at karaoke).

I am really tired.  This 41 year old body could probably not last another day.  These folks were just too young for me.  I tried to keep up and pretend that I could do so.  I hope my facade worked.  In about 18 hours I should be in the arms of my wife and kids.  My flight into Indianapolis should arrive around 11 pm and this tired traveler will be back home again in Indiana.

I think we accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish this week here and made many new friends and memories.  Thank you to all my hosts.  I will not forget my time here (and those of you who were at the karaoke bar with me will likely NOT allow me to forget it).

Jon

Happy Wives Happy Lives

I have explained my motto to all the young people we are working with over here in Bucharest.  My motto is really “Happy Wife, Happy Life” so let me explain the plurality of the title of this blog.

I think I have blogged in the past how I deal with ordering food at a restaurant when dining with my wife.  Basically I let here order (2) things that sound good to her and then (after she has tasted both) she tells me which is mine and which is hers.  This has left me at a slight disadvantage when I am eating out with a group of people that does NOT include my wife.  I am at a loss of what to order as over time I have lost this skill.  After I explained this to our hosts, they each decided they would take turns being my “wife” when we are at a restaurant.  One such wife is Alex…

Here we are last night at a nice Italian restaurant.  Alex has offered this service at lunch each day (other than the first day when there was a catered lunch).  He has not steered me wrong and he even allows me to make suggestions and (as a bonus) he does not ask to take a bite of my food with the intent of swapping plates with me.  It is now a running joke each time we enter a restaurant, “Who will be Jon’s wife tonight?”  They are having a little fun at my expense.

The penne pasta with arrabiata sauce was good as was the appetizers, wine and desert (tiramisu).  There were about a dozen of us and we had a very good time and spent several hours together.  These late nights are taking a toll on my 41 year old body though and I only have (maybe) one more night in me before I collapse.  I am looking forward to being home and getting back to normal (oh, and getting my REAL wife back).

Jon

Down To Business

Today I got to speak to the team here for the first time.  That it to say I was presenting in a training session.  I have gained a lot of confidence since I last did live training in Cordoba 4 years ago.  Tomorrow most of the day I will be speaking / training / answering questions.  Tomorrow is the reason why I was invited to come on this trip so I hope I can perform well.

I have blogged before about my habits of ordering food at a restaurant.  Typically I let the wife order 2 things that sound good to her and after she has tasted them both, she decides what she will have (and by elimination, what I will have).  I discovered this week that I have lost the ability to order for myself.  Couple the language barrier with this fact and you will see that I simply had to allow Alex (a worker here) to pick something for me while I was going through the line at the cafeteria here…

 

I think this was some sort of cabbage wrapped around some kind of meat.  The yellow piles is some sort of corn thingy.  It was good and I ate it all.  The one thing I did choose for myself was my drink and the Schweppes Bitter Lemon that I selected was something that I do not think I will try again.

After a long afternoon session, some of the team met us at a local place and (once again) I has someone to order for me.  The lady who did this was not with us at lunch and looked confused as to why she was asked to do this strange thing (I did not ask this but rather it was the person who ordered my lunch).  I think they were having fun with me…

This is ribs with potatoes and pickles / pickled red peppers.  The meat was a little tough but it hit the spot.  Eventually she ordered dessert as well (some sort of flan).  Most of the team was drinking plenty of beer and some were smoking.  I just sat back and enjoyed the conversation and tried to answer questions about America (including a few about The Young And The Restless).  It is always funny to hear what interests people about my country.  After a quick taxi trip back to the hotel we all agreed to meet for breakfast at a certain time tomorrow morning.

I am having a good time and trying to take it all in.  Today is my wedding anniversary (and I think the first one that the wife and I have been apart).  I was able to call her twice today (using Skype) and we will be together in a little over 3 days.  I miss the kids as well and they are both ready for me to be home already.

Jon