Tag: travel

I spent this last week traveling for work, and I have not been away from the family that long ever. Happily, I returned to a standing home, with three humans happy to see me, and one dog that couldn’t lick me enough. I didn’t even see the dirty dishes and laundry that was waiting for me…..all week.  It is nice to be loved.

When I travel for work, there is a great opportunity for me to get some good reading in with little interruption, especially on a plane or in the hotel at night. This trip, while a long one, did not provide me with as much reading time as I expected, but it did provide my colleagues with much merriment at my passion for books.

See, my work team is located around the globe, and we were mostly together this week in Toronto (thank you to those that held down the fort on the home front). As we gathered in the office, we were able to chat casually about different things more easily than on the technology we have. A few of us somehow got on the topic of getting kids started right. I related my story of how we made our kids read 100 books to earn a WII, and the conversation kept going from there. At some point, I even shared a view of the excel workbook I maintain to track my reading. We laughed and went back to our work.

That evening, we were all out at a team dinner, and sitting at a long table. The people at my end of the table included some executives that oversee the global team, new employees and internal partners. We were a diverse group. Somehow we started talking about books – I did not start this  – as my colleagues begin to tease me. Over the next hour or so they are informed that I created a dashboard of my reading history (only back to 2011) like I do for work, explain how I choose the books, where I get them, and what format I prefer and more. Aside from feeling like the largest geek there (and I will fondly state that this was not an easy title because the whole team gave me a run for my money), we had an amazing time together. The best part was getting more recommendations for expanding my reading.

With suggestions for mysteries (thank you Fifi), fantasy (thank you Allison), logic (thank you Karl) and more, my TBR list continues to expand. I am so thankful for the support of my colleagues and friends in sharing this journey with me. There are so many new things to read that I know I will never run out of suggestions, so keep them coming!

On the flight home I was able to finish the book I started on my flight there. When you were older by Catherine Ryan Hyde’s story of a man that missed being in his office at the World Trade Center on Sept 11 because he got a call that his mother died. Great book for the plane, right? The story begins in the days after, working its way back to that phone call, and then back to the aftermath. Russell’s older brother Ben needed to be looked after, as he was not able to do so himself. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to the post-traumatic stress of seeing your office collapse, watching someone jump from the towers, and knowing that only you and one other from your entire office are still alive.  Russell meets and falls in love with an Egyptian baker in his small mid-western town, and the cultures clash, while emotions run high for all. The Arabic bashing that occurs due to fear, as well as facing the reality of being responsible for his brother, brings back all kinds of stress for Russell. Ultimately, this is a story of how to come to terms with the reality of what you have gone through, and being true to yourself and your humanity. Well done, not overly morbid, but too swift and nicely packaged an ending for my taste.

Off to update my dashboard, and add to my TBR list!