My new hobby: jet setting
Yesterday I went out for a beer in downtown Toronto. It is a strange thing to zap myself magically into another country for a day, but for the next three years, maybe more, I am going to be commuting to Toronto once a quarter.
Thanks goes, in part, to my polydoma lifestyle. I am so used to running back and forth to Maine that it seems reasonable to commute to Toronto. Honestly, it was really easy. There's a 6:30 pm flight out of my local airport every night, and an 8:30 return flight. It's two hours in the plane, an hour and a half to and in the airport: basically the same as my three hour drive to Maine plus a ferry. I found an Airbnb right around the corner. I arrived in Toronto, hailed a cab to my Airbnb, and slept with my balcony door open, listening to the sounds of the city. I have a view of the CN Tower and some stadium from my balcony, though not the waterfront. It's close, though.
The training is wild and wonderful and exactly what I wanted, but also mystifying. It's a program for successful business people who want to become leaders in their fields, take it to the next level; an entrepreneurial coaching thing. There are twenty-four of us in the room, and I was nearly the only other woman. The coaching program has offices in Chicago, London and Toronto. There are people from several continents in my class. But the only other woman in the program lives in Toronto and was there with her husband, who did all the talking. No one else had two people from the same company, and only a handful were local. I was pretty surprised at the lack of women. I can't think of another time where I was in a sizeable group where the number of non-white people outnumbered the number of non-male people in the room.
The actual stuff I learned still needs digesting. Right now I am feeling a little like I have had my bell rung: disoriented, a bit dazed by the displacement. Yesterday I had a beer in a bar with a guy from Zimbabwe, then climbed into a little prop plane and flew over Lake Ontario, got in my car, drove home and went to bed and got up and went to work. Wednesdays I smash the patriarchy, but Thursday I have clients.
It's a bit jarring, is all.
I have a bunch more travel coming up. June was Maine, July was Michigan, August I had a lovely trip to New York City, September was this day in Toronto, October I go to Philadelphia, November I am going to be in Miami (and then an actual vacation cruise), then in December I will go back to Toronto.
I feel my tether to My Small Town loosening. The children are raised. It is starting to feel like a city might be in my future. It's certainly one solution to my inability to find labor for my business.
But which city? I don't feel all that wedded to any particular country. I learned a bunch of languages as a child, Latin, Spanish, French and then German. I could pick them back up again if needed. My credentials (and most of my specific knowledge) are American, but most of the skills translate. I could work in Basil or Berlin, Uruguay or Montreal.
I am going to dream a bit, and distance myself from the horror show that is American politics right now. That smashing the patriarchy "to do" item is not going well.
Thanks goes, in part, to my polydoma lifestyle. I am so used to running back and forth to Maine that it seems reasonable to commute to Toronto. Honestly, it was really easy. There's a 6:30 pm flight out of my local airport every night, and an 8:30 return flight. It's two hours in the plane, an hour and a half to and in the airport: basically the same as my three hour drive to Maine plus a ferry. I found an Airbnb right around the corner. I arrived in Toronto, hailed a cab to my Airbnb, and slept with my balcony door open, listening to the sounds of the city. I have a view of the CN Tower and some stadium from my balcony, though not the waterfront. It's close, though.
The training is wild and wonderful and exactly what I wanted, but also mystifying. It's a program for successful business people who want to become leaders in their fields, take it to the next level; an entrepreneurial coaching thing. There are twenty-four of us in the room, and I was nearly the only other woman. The coaching program has offices in Chicago, London and Toronto. There are people from several continents in my class. But the only other woman in the program lives in Toronto and was there with her husband, who did all the talking. No one else had two people from the same company, and only a handful were local. I was pretty surprised at the lack of women. I can't think of another time where I was in a sizeable group where the number of non-white people outnumbered the number of non-male people in the room.
The actual stuff I learned still needs digesting. Right now I am feeling a little like I have had my bell rung: disoriented, a bit dazed by the displacement. Yesterday I had a beer in a bar with a guy from Zimbabwe, then climbed into a little prop plane and flew over Lake Ontario, got in my car, drove home and went to bed and got up and went to work. Wednesdays I smash the patriarchy, but Thursday I have clients.
It's a bit jarring, is all.
I have a bunch more travel coming up. June was Maine, July was Michigan, August I had a lovely trip to New York City, September was this day in Toronto, October I go to Philadelphia, November I am going to be in Miami (and then an actual vacation cruise), then in December I will go back to Toronto.
I feel my tether to My Small Town loosening. The children are raised. It is starting to feel like a city might be in my future. It's certainly one solution to my inability to find labor for my business.
But which city? I don't feel all that wedded to any particular country. I learned a bunch of languages as a child, Latin, Spanish, French and then German. I could pick them back up again if needed. My credentials (and most of my specific knowledge) are American, but most of the skills translate. I could work in Basil or Berlin, Uruguay or Montreal.
I am going to dream a bit, and distance myself from the horror show that is American politics right now. That smashing the patriarchy "to do" item is not going well.