What Gets Me Through

When I leave to go on business trips people typically make the comment like well you will at least get to sleep in or at least you can get away for a couple days. I know that they all mean well and don't mean those comments in any ill way. But I don't like to be away from my girls for long periods.

I catch myself thinking: I wonder what they are doing, I wonder if everything is OK, I wonder what new trick Maddie is up to now. The last several times that I have gone away on business I have felt that when I got back my daughter has changed. She looks different. She is doing new things. She is getting bigger. The list keeps going.

If anyone has traveled for business by themselves more than a few times know that there are some pretty lonely moments on the road. I have had a couple of those moments and they typically come about when you are at dinner. You look around see families eating together, friends laughing and having some beers, and kids running around the restaurants. Then there is me walking in the restaurant the hostess greets you with a smile and then I say, "Just one tonight". They drop their smile and look at you like some poor sap, I would hate to eat alone.

I find myself sitting at my table at dinner time flipping through my phone. All I can say is Thank GOD for new cell phone technologies and camera phones. I have so many pictures of my little Maddie that I sit and look at them all during dinner. That's what gets me through...

Don't you think this picture would get you through it too?