work - life balance (not) this week

I'm waiting for my flight to go home - I got spoiled after spending a month at home, the longest period I've spent at home in about 2 years. It was really nice to be at home!

This trip was pretty tiring - and my days at work have been getting longer. At first it was the meetings that started at 8am, which isn't bad. Then most of them crept up to start at 7am. The day I flew down to San Jose, my first meeting started at 6:30am; I left for the airport at 2:30pm, arrived into San Jose (on time!!!) at 7pm, had dinner with my brother, and then jumped online to work again before going to bed. The rest of the week has been similar, and this is a work - life balance that is skewing in the wrong direction.

I returned the cello I had in the Bay Area in June, so I was cello-less (can't wait to get home to try to play a little tonight!) but I'm not sure I would have time to practice much anyway. So there's a little whining going on here; I really love my job but the constant demands on my times during periods like these without the relief of the cello are hard.

Pulling Back for Sanity

There was no orchestra rehearsal on Monday because we take a week off after a concert. Our conductor graciously offered to hold a rehearsal for any one who is playing for the Dalai Lama event instead, so about a dozen of us showed up. It was the second time I had played through the cello part, and as we went through it at the speed he thought we'd take it for the performance, I realized that it just wasn't going to be realistic for me to expect to be able to play it next week. I'm traveling now, waiting for my flight home to Seattle, and then my husband and I are going to take some time off to celebrate our anniversary. So as I thought it through, I decided that the stress of trying to learn the 4th movement of Beethoven's ninth in 2 days just wasn't worth it. Once I decided, I felt much better.

So I am looking forward to our trip! Our anniversary was on Tuesday, the day I left for my work-related trip. We're going to the Powell River area of Canada, which I am very much looking forward to! He starts a new job on Monday, so the timing is perfect for a few days of R&R.

I just want to get home....

I am stuck at the San Jose airport. The flight time kept creeping back...from 6:30pm to 7:30 to 9:00 and now about 10pm....meaning if we actually leave at the new time I'll get home around 1am. I'm exhausted from the week and really didn't need a severely delayed flight. For a while it wasn't even clear whether the airline could even get us out tonight. I tried to switch to a different flight but everything is sold out, even at the other nearby airports (San Francisco and Oakland airports aren't far away).

What really tweaks me out was that I wanted to take an earlier flight, but my manager switched a meeting that was originally scheduled for Friday to this afternoon, forcing me to stay on this extremely delayed flight...and then didn't bother to show up for the meeting. Aargh...

At the Airport, Yet Again

In a twist on my usual wait at the San Jose airport, I'm stuck waiting for a flight at the Seattle airport. It's Alaska Airlines. It's late. That is my normal experience on an evening flight. I'm really bummed to have to leave tonight, in order to make it to an early meeting tomorrow morning. I try really hard to protect Monday nights so that I can make it to orchestra rehearsal. My worst showing was one cycle where I missed half of the rehearsals because of my travel schedule. This cycle I'll miss about once a month. The same with Friday nights, when I have my lesson, although I have to be in the Bay Area all week, so I had to reschedule my lesson to Saturday. Good thing it is bow and hand exercises, because they are easier to do on the road. I have a horrid rental cello and bow in the Bay Area, but I hate practicing and playing on it so as a consequence don't play as much when I'm there. Also, I'm usually pretty busy, since I cram all of my face-to-face meetings during the time I'm there so it isn't unusual to have a day that starts at 5am and ends at 10pm.

the other bummer is that my sunday chamber group is doing a gig on Sunday, and I don't have access to a piano when I'm in the Bay Area. The Bolling piece we're doing is really hard on the pianist - i've practiced and practiced my solo riffs. yesterday I rehearsed with the flautist and we fine tuned the transitions, entrances, playing in total synch with each other. It's a really fun piece but I am worried about not being able to play until Saturday - it'd be really nice to play it every day this week. oh well. Rehearsal was mostly getting ready for the gig.

looks like they might be ready to board us...thank goodness!

Dangerous Moon Cakes

I'm stuck at my home away from home, the Alaska Airlines gate in the San Jose airport, waiting for a flight that is now 2 hours late. Sigh. This happens far too frequently.

I did get a laugh going through security. My backpack (dutifully emptied of laptop and 1-quart bag of 100ml or less liquids/gels) got searched. The TSA person went straight to the box of moon cakes that were in my bag. The look on his face when he opened up the box was priceless. The inspector saw some suspicious dense blobs in the X-ray image, which triggered the search. Those dense blobs were the egg yolks in the moon cakes!

This wasn't as funny as the time I got the full luggage search in the airport in Paris - that time I had found a gag gift that I was bringing home. I'll never forget the look on his face and the way he said with his wonderful French-accented English, "Cat Butt Magnets????"