I don't know what it means, but...

I'm sure that some of my search for significance in random events has been heightened by the fact that I am in transition. Not just me, either. There is transition all around me. (Of course, I'm more sensitive to it these days, so I'm seeing it EVERYWHERE!) But, as AD pointed out today, sometimes a story is just a story. I don't need to know the moral(s) or what this all means. I just have to tell it.

So, here is how it began. This Singapore trip appeared in my work life a few weeks after I had taken my "very last corporate business trip" to the UK. To be honest, Singapore has never been on my must see list. And the work needed during this time was - even for me - a little too much to consider. Quite frankly, the two weeks leading up to the trip left me literally twisted into physical knots. The chiropractor - two days before I left - couldn't even get me straightened out because the muscles in my back were so tight that the bones couldn't be realigned. It was bad.

But I boarded the plane in Phoenix with agendas, attendees, travel team, and proposed outputs all in place. I won't say that I was thrilled with the prep work, but we had made the best of a bad job. The travel team was prepared for possible long days. The attendees knew what we needed from them. It would still be tough, but manageable.

But then my first flight arrived at the gate 10 minutes late. And, after the airplane doors closed and the jet way pulled away, we were grounded by San Francisco traffic control - for 45 minutes. My layover was 95 minutes, so it was still possible at this point that I would make it. But then we circled San Francisco for 15 minutes. And then the airline that I needed to get my new boarding pass from had no one at the counter. And it was really only 5 minutes before the doors closed by the time I got there, so I probably wouldn't have made it anyway.

I remember sitting there at the counter trying to not cry from frustration. The extra 12 hours that I had built in to acclimate to the 15 hour time difference before my travel team arrived was spent in San Francisco instead. And, although I didn't know it at the time, this was when my luggage disappeared. But none of this was the fault of the counter agents. So they rebooked me for the next flight out - 2 pm the next day - and got me in touch with the airline who helped me miss my flight in the first place. Of course, they had no counter agents on duty at 1:30 am, so they could not issue me a voucher for a hotel. But I was very motivated to find one!

So I called my travel office. The nice guy on the phone spent 55 minutes calling around to hotels - because it was already tomorrow, he couldn't tell who had availability AND there were some conventions in town so it took a while - and I got the only cab out to the hotel. Of course, the guy had no idea where the hotel was and no GPS, but we got directions and made it OK.

And somewhere between the ticket counter and my hotel something happened. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but I just quit trying to make things go the way I had planned. Looking back at it now, it may be that I missed my flight so that I could go into the meetings with just that attitude (or possibly so I could handle the slightly panicky phone call from one of my employees the next morning). Maybe the best way to describe it is to tell you what I did.

I got onto the lovely plane the next day and I watched comedy movies the whole 10 hours to Incheon. And I slept all the way from Incheon to Singapore. I did not do the data sets and curriculum edits I had planned. I did not tweak the meeting materials. I did not even think about work. I giggled a lot - though I tried to be quiet about it since some people don't use the airplane time to start acclimating to the new time zone like I do.

When I got to Singapore, I waited for my luggage. Then I filed my paperwork for them to find it. I didn't even feel surprised - though I REALLY regretted packing my camera. The airline gave me money for essentials and a toiletry kit (that included the 1 of the things I was missing from my carryon) and a white t-shirt. When I checked in at the hotel, and told them about the luggage thing, they gave me another missing luggage kit that included a wrap skirt and a comb - the other thing I was missing. The clothes were critical, of course, because I had already changed into my spare outfit in San Fran....

So, I slept and showered and took my money to the mall. And I went to work the next day and realized that all of this "rolling with it" stuff had just been prep - because WOW did that meeting need to get away from my agenda and on the the real problem!

It was a complicated work week with much to do. And my work day started at the equivalent of midnight for my body clock and finished around 9:30 am. I went shopping for clothes after work on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday ( I gave up then and bought enough for the rest of the week). And different members of my team needed different encouragement and attention, so I had to be available for group meals 3x a day. There was one time during the whole week when I knew that I could've gone over the edge - but I somehow managed to ask the working team to do something without me while I took a walk to figure out our next steps.

Yes, I was tired (OK, still am, really) and yes, it was tricky. But it really didn't feel bad. I guess the part of me that knew this would make a funny "why I REALLY left corporate America" story or "why I NEVER check my luggage" story was much more present than the "this is NOT how I planned to spend my time" voice. And I suspect that, oddly enough, the trip would've been more difficult if I had had even one fewer problem to deal with. So, that is my story. I don't know what it means, but it really did happen this way!