A Trip Worth Taking

Tuesday, October 9, 2012
One of the downsides of my new gig with the Military Industrial Complex is that I travel, probably 3-4 times a month. Oftentimes my trips are only a day or two, sometimes they're for the whole week. Historically, I've not enjoyed traveling on business, but since I'm doing it so damn often now, I'm trying to get my mind right as it relates to these trips. While it's certainly true that I'd rather be home, I think it's appropriate to make an effort to make them a bit more enjoyable.

So when I was requested for a Monday morning meeting in Lansing, Michigan this week, I decided to fly in earlier than I might have on Sunday in order to give myself time to drive to Grand Rapids and meet fellow UCFer Shawn and his family. We've been friends for almost five years, but never had the opportunity to meet, so I was very excited to get the chance.

The drive from Lansing to Grand Rapids was fabulous.

I did not watch the lens while taking this photo. I'm lucky it's not sideways.
When I arrived in Grand Rapids, we had lunch at a local Mexican eatery, and then walked around the downtown area to look at the various entries for Grand Rapids' annual outdoor art show called Artprize. Most of the entries were multimedia, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My favorite piece:

Driftwood horses in the river. They reminded me of "Lord of the Rings."
The best part of the day, though, was meeting Shawn, Donna, Amanda, Lydia and Lizzie.

It's never too cold for ice cream. Or water in a box.
These are all tremendously nice people. Shawn and Donna were as decent, kind and gracious as I knew they would be, and their children are all cheerful, polite and engaging. Every time I meet another member of my on-line group, I'm amazed and grateful at how very lucky I am to be included in such a diverse community. And how very lucky our community is, to have found each other through the wonders of technology without inadvertently including whackadoos in our numbers. I'd call it kismet if I was prone to the woo.

The next day I had my meeting, and here was the view from our meeting room:

Michigan's Capital Building

Now if I can arrange to have all my trips be so enjoyable, I suspect I'd like them a whole lot more. Thanks, Powers Clan, for a lovely afternoon.

5 comments:

Anne C. said...

Happiness!

I'm very envious you've met the wonderful Powers clan. :)

Stacey said...

I'm so glad you are finding enjoyment when you can.

Shawn Powers said...

We also had a lovely time, and it was great to finally put a person to the "Auntie Janiece" persona my kids have grown up with. :)

Thank you for making the drive over. I was worried the weather would be miserable, but even that turned out great!

(Oh, and thanks for not being cool-online-but-super-weird-and-freaky-in-person. Because I hate that. :)

Janiece said...

Ditto, Shawn. If you'd turned out to be a reject from Criminal Minds, I might have lost my faith in humanity.

Anne C. said...

Janiece, I know exactly what you mean with that last comment. :D