coming up for air

while still recovering from my own little march madness, i found myself drenched in an april shower of events that have allowed me a scant six days at home since feb 28! and don’t you know that i am loving every chaotic, nomadic, dynamic, mosaic moment of it.

but even though i recoil from routine and thrive on variety, this stretch of OLIO has brought an unexpected side-effect: the continual springing from one world to the next has left me in a constant state of feeling like i’ve just emerged from a hazy dream. not in the sense that i’m “living the dream,” although all of my endeavors have been rewarding and fun.

each subsequent booking on the schedule is so completely different from the one prior to it, and in such quick succession, that the hectic pace and acclimation time eclipse any reflection or resetting. this has the effect of rendering the immediate past in a dreamy “did that just happen?” state.

i’m fully aware that a great number of people maintain a lifestyle that keeps them haphazardly bouncing from place to place like a human game of pong. some of these gigs seem exciting and fulfilling, while some i’m sure must be boring and repetitive, but i imagine either variety of on-the-road job induces the disoriented wake up call each morning.

but for for the common jet-setter, the where is the main variable to identify each day, with the what remaining somewhat consistent: today i will perform, or consult, or create, or evaluate, or promote…there’s an anchor of stability in the familiar task and type of people that will be encountered. for me, at least these past two months, each new project or event carried with not only new surroundings, but new people, activities, and pace of things.

one minute my reality is training cooks and preparing food for 20 people for 16 hours each day, and the next minute the only thing on my schedule is shredding snow on the slopes and hanging with my brother. followed immediately by 40 hours on location writing and editing with an author, only to find myself back in the kitchen (in yet another state) for the next five days to plug chef mandy’s book. wait, was that a flash of home i saw right before i found myself on the beach in mexico with 200 of lee‘s colleagues?

all the while my thoughts are threaded with intermittent flickers of “wasn’t i just…?” as if it’s just a foggy dream that is swiftly dissipating. when i think forward to when i will get back to “my real life,” it’s almost as if there is no such thing.

i think it’s time for a breather.