I was reading Mara's blog about the school v real world debate, and right now, my vote is strongly with the real world. Yes traveling is hard and I work a lot of hours, but I feel like my life has simplified. Some of that is bad- I hang out with much fewer of my friends and much less frequently. But some of it is really relaxing- I have very little to actively worry about. I have to do good work on the job; I have to make time to run; I have to stay as connected as I can to my friends and family. My efforts are so much more focused. It's especially nice compared to when I was looking for apartments.

But I remember school as a time of fractured attention and constantly being pulled in different directions. Always having something I should be doing or some where I should be, either socially or academically. Where I am right now, I have enough money that I don't have to worry about it and I have a finite and known set of demands from one sources (work) rather than a million different classes and projects. I feel more streamline. I wouldn't say I'm doing well on the keeping in touch with people thing, but it's a work in progress.

I have a feeling that from now on, I'm never going to have the time to post anything very often. I can say I'll post once a week or once every two weeks. But when you're on the road and with people all the time, it's hard to carve out time.

I mean, this past week, I went to Chicago last Sunday and got back yesterday. I had training there from Tuesday through Friday and I went early to hang out with Aron (who was in Chicago for a wedding) and meet some of his friends. And it was fun. But I was so ready to be back in my own little apartment in my own big city. The week before that I was outside Detroit at a different site for the same project, but with entirely different people. Is it bad that I'm really looking forward to being back in familiar North Carolina with the 3 guys I'm used to working with?

Training was intense. They take you through a sample case from proposal to completion in 3 days, so you learn stuff in workshops but then you have to immediately do it. I think it's a great model for a training, but they gave us no personal time at all. We went all day (8-6) and then straight to dinner or happy hour. I only ran once in 6 days. I also had regular work that I needed to be doing, so a couple nights I was up late trying to finish stuff.

Since I got home this weekend has been awesome, just what I needed. Aron and I had a rough couple weeks when I first started traveling. There was two or three weekends in a row where we wasted the little time we did have together with stupid fights. But I feel like we're starting to get the routine down. Last night I got in early (the greatest gift that the airlines can give to anyone), and actually had time to take a run before we went to our Friday night dance lesson. I've really been enjoying dance lessons. I suck at them. But it's just a fun way to spend an hour, and it turned into a great date with a long, conversation filled dinner and a slow walk home. Today I've done very little and it's awesome and tonight I get to see Leora. I haven't seen her in 2 weeks cause she's gone home for holidays the last 2 weekends.