Two weeks

12 flights

one struck by lightning

one delayed

3 early morning ones, requiring airport arrivals at 4 am

14706 miles by plane

5 countries

entered one 3 times

1 brief emotional breakdown

1 cold

too many Ubers to count

too little sleep

endless customs and immigration lines

lots of unexpected surprises

Restart

I love that my company's "you need to restart to install updates" notification inevitably pops up within 2 hours of having just restarted/turned on my computer. It's such an inconvenient reliability.

That being said, I kind of wish I could restart the way my computer does. There are lots of times when my day needs a restart, Or the last hour. Or what have you. A restart with an update , so that I do better, perform better. Sometimes, that would be nice. 

Interlude

Part one of the mad journey is done and I have made it back from Chicago (briefly though it may be. I checked in for my flight today before I even got on the plane for my flight yesterday!). I appreciate my travel buddies, who were down for off-beat tourist stops. I do wish I'd been able to do the boat architecture tour, and some other things, but there just wasn't time. (And a lot of things closed before I could have done them, because conference hours overlap with working hours, go figure).

Still, I don't regret the gangs and ghosts walking tour, the Museum of Ice Cream, the Nutella Cafe, or just walking around in Chicago. And, as far as I know Chicago isn't going anywhere, so it will still be there waiting for my next visit.

*Yes, I know there is nothing unique and original about any of these photos--the Chicago skyline, the Bean, they are in every tourist's album. But, these are different because they are mine, and I was there. 

Stress vibe

It's been a bit stressful at work lately. The "there's a lot going on and it's all going on all at once" kind of stressful.

• One employee moved
• which dominoed to hiring another employee
• and shifting the original into a temp role for a while
• and also creating a whole new job in another country because we are going to experiment and hire internationally
• so there's a bunch of HR stuff
• meanwhile, we are planning a trip for two weeks
• but I'll be at a conference for 4 days before we leave, so for me, I'm gone for 2 1/2 weeks
• and need to prep to digitize collections in 4 different countries with 3 different types of equipment and 7 or 8 people with 2-3 days in each location, followed up by a stop in a fifth country for a couple of days
• and we had to figure out how to travel with a 50 lb. camera setup
• and figure out which folders in each collection will require which equipment
• and how to train, and who, on what
• meanwhile, I also need to keep training and keep the day to day stuff going, as if we weren't going on a trip
• and my intern is going on vacation
• so I will have one person actually doing work
• and have to figure out the interviews and hiring stuff for the new employee
• and pack for two trips
• and sleep?

So, it's been busy. And intense. And that's just work. (Thank goodness I don't have much going on outside of work!!!)

And, yes, I am at least a little bit doing that one-upmanship bragging about how much I have going on, at least I suppose there's a little part of that, although that's not my main intention, and the only reason I write about it is because it's been quite life-consuming, so I have nothing else to write about. Just give it 3 weeks, though.