very simple

I think I’m really, actually, for real, no joke finally going home (at least for a few days) on Wednesday. I may need to turn around and be here again on Monday, or in London, but just to get out of this hotel room will be exalting (and seriously, I’m so staying at the airport Sheraton if I have to come back – I feel confident that they don’t charge 80 euros a day for wireless internet access). I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining too much, and it’s actually not the work that’s the problem (the work has been interesting, if very time-consuming). It’s really all of the circumstances at the margins. It’s certainly the hotel (which…I don’t want to get started again), the apparently totally anomolous rainy weather, that lovely flu bug thing I had last week, missing the entire fall lineup of new TV shows, missing major events in my friends lives, and not even having time to shop for myself, let alone gifts for anyone else (did I mention that everything around here is closed on Sunday?).

Oh, and my back totally misses both my new mattress and my aeron chair. And, while I’m normally a big fan of Italian food, I’ve seriously eaten enough pasta to last a lifetime. I want sushi. I’ve actually had a major craving for about a week and a half. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be heading downtown to yama wednesday night, no matter how tired I am.

On the flip side, I’ve become quite adept at typing out long e-mails on my blackberry. I think tonight I’m going to find a little outdoor cafe, have a glass of wine, and not think about work for a few hours.

So I get to work this morning and I find out that I’m going to have to do a bit of traveling next week.

To Rome.

And possibly London.

For at least the next month.

Don’t get me wrong. Rome is one of my favorite cities on earth (I was last there 9 years ago), and spending a month there is awesome. Even if it’s for work, I’ll certainly have plenty of free time (the Italians are not quite as psychotic as the new yorkers with the night and weekend work). and Rome is certainly a much nicer destination that my normal ports of call of Spokane, Allentown, Kansas City… you get the drift. But a month is also a long time to be away from home. I did point out to my bosses that I would have to fly home for one thing – my best friend is days away from having a baby, so clearly I had to put in the caveat that I need to come home for the bris, but other than that…

woohoo! Ciao baby!

I’m off to see if I can download Italian for dummies to my ipod.