Air travel

Right now I'm posting from my hotel room in Chicago. In the past 2 months I have taken 2 flights to spend 2 nights away from my family. Previously it's been over 3 years since I've even been on a plane, and then I was with my family.

Business air travel seems kind of glamorous with your power suit, your executive leather briefcase, your wheeled travel bag with you connected to your mobile phone via bluetooth headset making powerful and important decisions on the go. It seems glamorous, but honestly, it makes me feel tired. I'm very happy with my job where I show up in the same place everyday.

I've never been to Chicago, so it is kind of exciting to see somewhere new, but my room here is very quiet. Sometimes in the chaos of home I really long for a little solace. Today I can say it's overrated.

Anyway, the flight was fine. My seat was a little stingy in the legroom department, my iPod died, and the onboard audio quality was abysmal, but I had my trusty crossword collection to keep me occupied.

I sat by the window and watched as the houses, roads, fields, factories, and warehouses got smaller and smaller. When you are up so high you can see patterns. The road grids, housing developments, canals, ponds, lakes, hills and mountains; all the things that you can't see when you're own the ground in the thick of things. From up so high the little details seem somehow not to matter so much. Like when I drove the car off the road coming home from night-skiing right after Lisette was born. Man, that was seriously depressing and stressful at the time, but from 10 years make it seem pretty inconsequential. I should remember that the next time Saffron spills her milk, or Ian doesn't do the Laundry, or Miles leaves his dishes out, or Lisette won't clean her room.