Me on a Business Trip

So here is a little peek into what you should visualize when I am traveling on business. First things first, it's important to note that I almost always travel with a group of people significantly older than me. Don't know why- that's just sort of how it happens. This is important, for context.

So in the airplane- I always sit in the aisle. I have to get a drink each time they offer one- and sometimes I get really antsy- so I visit the bathroom a lot. If I'm especially nervous about flying, I try to sit by someone who looks open to conversation and then I chat their ears off on takeoff and landing for distraction purposes. When I started traveling for work, I assumed that the team tried to sit together. That's what friends do, right? Not so much. Not cool. Everyone gets on the plane and acts like they don't know each other...so my chatter is often the butt of many jokes. The CMO of GSD&M often opens a meeting with clients by saying something like "you should know how much we wanted to be here based on the fact that we were willing to listen to Sam chatter to her seatmate all the way to Boston/Chicago/LA/etc." HAR DEE HAR HAR.

Occasionally, I'll get to chatting it up with someone (male or female) and they'll offer to buy me a drink (usually male). I always say yes. No one should drink alone on a plane. I always order a bloody mary.

When we get to our location, I check in, I go upstairs and I drop my stuff in the middle of the room, sigh, and flop on the bed. It's very important to me to FLOP because then I know what sort of bed/sleep I'm working with. And I love the drama of it.

Once I recover from the sheer exhaustion of being a busy advertising executive, "traveling on business", I put on the hotel robe and scope out the snack situation and scan some channels on TV. Depending on what the snack situation looks like, I either have a snack or evaluate the room service menu. More often than not, I open any variety of fancy water, diet coke, and usually peanut M&Ms (not many hotels carry skittles or chewy sprees). I constitute this sort of gluttony because I'm on vacation. I mean, I'm "traveling on business".

When I first started traveling for work, I would occasionally jump on the bed in my robe at some point because it gave me a giggle that I was jumping on the bed while the rest of my team was responding to emails or reading a newspaper or something grown up like that. But I've outgrown that, for the most part.

If I'm in a shopping city and it's before 8:00, I'll skip any and all other activities in to go peruse the stores. Boston, LA and NYC are especially good for this. After I've done all these things, I usually head back to my room where I order a movie or read a book or if I really need to- catch up on work.

The next morning, I wake up about 40 minutes before I have to meet in the lobby. I order breakfast- two eggs and fruit- and a toothbrush and toothpaste. I almost always forget these essentials. It's sort of my calling card. I jump in the shower. I eat my breakfast. I blow dry my hair and put on my makeup...and then I am out the door.

There you go. That's me on a business trip in a nutshell.
I wonder how many other "business people" do this. I think it's more than one might originally think. That visual really makes me smile.

For any and all readers that have a connection to GSD&M- this is our little secret. :)