Murder By Travel

I don't know what I've done to deserve it, and I'm not even certain it's true, but I think my employer is trying to kill me.

See, my job requires that I travel. It's video production work, so I have to carry a lot of gear around with me. Granted, it's not as much stuff as that dude from CBS's "48 Hours" that I saw carrying, but that's a different animal. Mine are still large cases, still generally over the airlines' allowable weight max, and still need to be lugged from home to car to airport to car to location to hotel room to car to airport to home to office blah blah blah.

But lately the travel has been ridiculous. Take June, for instance. June started on May 30 with a flight to Palm Beach, Florida for a convention that lasted until June 4, and I flew home on the 5th. I was back in Chicago for five full days, and then I was back in the air on my way to Dublin, Ireland. IRELAND! For TWO WEEKS!! Okay, one week was for work, and the other was actually my vacation, with a niece and nephew of mine, each there as my graduation gift to them (WOO HOO! Frequent flyer miles!). I was in Chicago for a full five days, making that a grand total of ten days that I was home in the month of June. And then it was JULY!

On the 5th I was on the 6:50am flight back to Florida, this time Daytona, with a drive back to Palm Beach (see earlier post "World's Best Driver") for a total of four days. in Chicago for only ten days, I was then off to Puerto Rico on the 19th for a ten day stretch of three conferences (see "A Week In Puerto Rico (So Far...). I arrived home on the 29th, but I had to turn around for a 6:00am flight to San Diego the next day, Saturday July 30th, for three nights, and suddenly, with only 14 days in Chicago in July, it was AUGUST!

On the 2nd we drove to Los Angeles (see "A Truly Beautiful Person") where we worked in the evening, worked into the afternoon on the Wednesday the 3rd, and then hopped on a plane back home. I was home for two nights, and then had a 6:30am Friday flight to Denver, where we worked for about six hours, and then managed to catch stand-by seats two hours earlier than our scheduled flight to get home by 11:30pm.

I have this weekend...most of it, anyway... to rest up, for tonight at 10:00 I fly to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where we work tomorrow morning, then we drive to Des Moines to work in the afternoon, and THEN we catch a flight through Chicago to Philadelphia, where we'll shoot on Tuesday. On Wednesday we have to fly BACK through Chicago, BACK to Cedar Rapids because some schlub had a procedure, so he can't be taped on Monday, and then we fly home in the early afternoon. Thursday afternoon we fly out again, this time to Atlanta for a Friday shoot in Bumphuck, Georgia, and a Saturday shoot in Asshump, Alabama (cue "Dueling Banjos" theme here). We fly back Sunday morning, but then we have to drive Monday morning two hours to Bloomington, Illinois, and then back in the afternoon. We may or may not have Tuesday at home, depending on whether or not something gets scheduled for that day, and then we have a one-day shoot in Omaha, Nebraska! THEN we get a whole three days back in Chicago before we have to go to Greenbrier, West Virginia, for 6 days for yet another convention. This will make a grand total of thirteen days home in August, IF other stuff isn't scheduled.

I swear to cod they're trying to kill me. And if not, please...

SOMEBODY SHOOT ME!

dassall