Zombie

I survived this past week, with the teen, mostly unscathed and we both made it to his competition and back.  On our first travel day, we ended up getting the rental car and just driving; we ended up in a questionable location, made a U-turn, and then went to a fabulous beach where the teen had the opportunity to dive into the ocean.  After that, we went to where we were staying and the competition time began.

It was nice to have the opportunity to hang out with other centers and get ideas from them on some of their programming (as well as offering some insight as what we do at my center).  One of the team building exercises we got to experience was an Escape Room.  The teens had the chance to work together to escape a Shakespeare themed room and the advisors had the chance to work together to escape a 40's style detective office (the hardest room they had to offer; which only had a 9% escape rate) - we didn't escape either room but we had a fun time.  Once we left Escape Room, we enjoyed yummy pizza at a small pizza place and just enjoyed some relaxation.

The next day, the interviews/speeches for the teens began.  The teen I went with, didn't want assistance with his speech beforehand but he did ask for my help the day of.  I heard it the first time, and I have to say, I was impressed.  He was articulate, passionate and he got his point across.  When it came time to give his speech in front of the judges/advisors/teens during lunch, he went "rogue" and said something that gave shock value to his speech.  I wasn't necessarily shocked by it because it was very him but other advisors asked me about it after the fact - I just shrugged and said, "he went rogue and stayed true to himself" and I left it at that.

So why am I a zombie you may ask?  While on this trip, I housed with another advisor and two teenage girls - the nights were too late and the mornings were too early so there was little time for sleep.  While I was gone, I received word from my parents that my grandfather passed away.  I've been dealing with that news/grief in my own way.  After giving it a lot of thought and talking it through with people, my day yesterday started very early with text messages to my boss, looking at the airline website, booking a hotel and a video call with my parents to make arrangements for me to be able to attend the funeral.  Even though I was gone from work all last week, I'm going to be leaving work again in order to attend; I'll be at work all day tomorrow and then Tuesday morning in order to accomplish all of the work I missed last week and to try and get done what I can for this upcoming week.  It's going to be another whirlwind week of travel, not enough sleep, high emotions but I'll be with family so that will at least help.

At times I have wondered what it would be like to be on the road all of the time for work and I don't know if I'm cut out for it.  I know that I'm definitely not cut out for it in my current situation where there is work that needs to be done before/during/after travel and be worried how it's going to get accomplished and if the mentality of the building is "while the cat's away, the mice will play..."  Maybe if it was my job to travel things would be different and I would have a different outlook.  At least packing should be somewhat easy since most of what was in my suitcase this past week will be going back in the suitcase for this upcoming week...

Well, my dear readers, this zombie should probably sign off of her for this evening so I can get a "to do" list together for work and to get ready for my upcoming trip this week.  I have my fingers crossed that I get everything accomplished that I need to at work but I'm going to look at it that I'm going to get accomplished what I get accomplished and leave it at that.  Even though I have a long couple of days ahead of me, I am definitely looking forward to seeing my family even if it's not under the best of circumstances.  I am hoping to get some rest tonight but we'll see if sleep eludes me tonight or not. Thank you for joining me my dear readers, hopefully none of you are zombies but if you are, you are welcome here - no zombie discrimination here!  =)