The Problem with a Traveling Job

I love to travel, no matter what. Doesn't matter if it's for work or for play, I just like a reason to go.

Recently I've taken trips to Singapore, New Orleans, Baltimore, Canada, Appalachian State, Birmingham, and a few other places. Right now, I'm chilling out in Robinson, Illinois.

The problem with a traveling job though, is that while you get to travel, you don't get to travel with friends. Traveling with friends can get expensive and whatnot, but it's always a blast. Traveling with the job is free, I get paid extra even, and it sends me to places I wouldn't have had a reason to go to otherwise. It also gives me access to some pretty cool places that I wouldn't have been able to get in to otherwise.

Buuut here's the suck of it. I spend about 9 - 10 hours a day working, then I come back to the hotel and dick around on the computer while doing some more work and watching TV. When I went to Singapore, I had stuff to do and people to see because it was close to AIESECers and there is a lot to see in Singapore. In New Orleans, at least there was a hookah bar where I could get out of the hotel and just hang out. Here, there's nothing but a few fast food joints and a WalMart that are open after 7.

Meh, I'm complaining. I really do enjoy my job, and I enjoy the fact that I do it well. I've done well enough this week that they've pushed up the project timeline! This project was a special one. It was tossed to me after 5pm the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, with the situation being poorly explained for the next few days. I arrived on Sunday night and showed up at the site at 8am on Monday. The site contact explained most of the current project, and then we went on-site and I found out the rest from another contact. Of course, that isn't all, apparently the last project to happen at this site went really really wrong, and that's why Atlanta sent me. Over the course of the last 3 days, I've all but completed a project that was supposed to take me 2 weeks, and found that I will be cleaning up the mess from the last project for the next week. I don't forsee a problem with completing the project though, we'll see what happens.

Yearly review begins in January, even though I've only been an employee since May. Hopefully my participation and success in almost-exclusively custom projects will help me out.