Travel Travel Travel

I went to Minneapolis this past week to teach one of my classes ("40 Going on 4: An Intro to Ageplay") at the Smitten Kitten on Sunday evening. I also got to check out a few of the city's gay bars, meet up with some of my favorite podcasters, stay with a one fun kinky friend, and visit with a great friend from childhood.

For the next 6 weekends, I am traveling and/or teaching for all of them. I will be at various events in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Indiana all in the next 6 weeks. This is why I am not attending school this summer!

One of the things I observed this weekend sort of startled me. I have begun to feel like this is my REAL life. My day job, which takes up far more of my actual HOURS than my kinky/sex educator life, doesn't feel like reality in the same way. It feels like a dentist visit - something I know I should do, but dread. Unlike I dentist visit, it takes up an enormous amount of time. We've been on overtime for 7 months, and MANDATORY overtime for a bit more than 3 months now. So I'm spending at least 45 hours a week working, plus lunch an commute time - basically I'm barely trudging through the bulk of my week.

It's not that my job is that bad. I work for a big insurance company, so it's not physical labor or outdoors, it pays well, the benefits are great (including tuition) and it's union. But I HATE the cubicle lifestyle, I don't like my co-workers or supervisor, etc.

The weekends though? The teaching, the people I get to meet, all of that is great. It's far more work and stress than my day job, but it's also far more rewarding. I feel exhausted when I come home from a travel event, and that exhaustion is a relief.

Because this kind of education and activity is so good for me, I want to blog here more. So I'm going to at least put up updates of the various places I go and what I've been up to, even if it's not science related. :)