A day in the life of a business traveler

My friend Ken is an anesthesiologist (and a professional photographer, but I digress.) Last night, we were talking, and I mentioned that I was heading to Boston for a quick trip. He said he was a little envious of my travel schedule, and I told him that there wasn’t really anything to be envious of. Here’s the proof in the form of my day’s schedule:

• 0345: wake up, shower, get dressed, and leave the house. Breakfast: a banana and a caffeine-free diet Coke, in hopes that there will be food on the plane.
• 0535: arrive at the Detroit airport, park the car,and breeze through security.
• 0550: stop in the Northwest WorldClub, where I find that my laptop has decided (again!) to permanently turn off my wireless card. This makes the free WorldClub wireless pretty worthless.
• 0610: board the aircraft for an on-time departure, sneaking in a few minutes of work with my laptop before they close the forward boarding door.
• 0620-0815: work, fueled by a glass of orange juice and a granola bar.
• 0820: arrive at the airport, talk briefly to the kids, and hustle to Hertz– where I find that they’ve given me the wrong car. Fortunately, what I got is nicer than what I reserved; unfortunately, they want to charge me for the extra. I don’t argue because I’m saving all my aggression for the drive on the Mass Turnpike
• 0920: arrive at the office, none the worse for wear for my first drive in Boston.
• 0930-1750: work like a dog on a variety of difficult technical problems, punctuated by a 15-minute pizza break..
• 1750-1820: drive back to the airport, return the car, and hit the terminal.
• 1820-2010: find that there aren’t any real restaurants in terminal E. Reluctantly eat at McDonald’s.
• 2020-2220: fly home, watching season 4 of 24 along the way.
• 2230-2340: drive home and go to sleep.

Not exactly glamorous 🙂 This was a good trip because a) I accomplished two days worth of work in one day so I could go home early and b) I didn’t have any major glitches.