The Road.

For work I often travel within Arizona. Today I kicked off the short work week with a road trip to Green Valley, a small town between Tucson and Nogales in southern Arizona. Despite the fact I was 15 minutes late after driving 18 miles one way in the wrong direction and the fact I was greeted by 12 surly seniors, I kind of enjoyed the road trip. I'm a native in Arizona and yet there are many parts of the state I've never seen, so I actually like getting to see new cities and towns. On top of that, I know a lot of people think that as a working parent I get a lot of 'alone' or 'me' time, but that's just not true. My 'alone' time is in the car during rush hour, and my 'me' time is after everyone else is in bed. It doesn't add up to much when you figure I'm up at 5:30 every morning, home about 5:30 in the evening, and pretty much every second up to 8:30 or 9:00 when Luca goes to bed is consumed by work, returning phone calls, dealing with traffic, and family stuff. I love it - don't get me wrong - but these day trips for work are really an escape for me. I can stop for coffee in the morning, eat lunch at some place I've never been before, listen to anything I want on the radio, talk to myself, stop for an ice cream cone on the way home. I have even been known to stop on my way home to check out a neighborhood in an unfamiliar city or shop for something for myself that I haven't had the time or energy to shop for prior.

In short, even if I'm driving to an armpit town in nowhere-ville to speak to 12 semi-catatonic geriatrics, I enjoy the freedom.