I have, for the last two weeks, been in Pennsylvania traveling around for work. I have lived in hotels and eaten out everyday. Driving, working, and sleeping has been my sole activities during that time. It has been, in some respects, everything that I had hoped for and in others an eye opening disappointment.  So without further ado…

• For the most part living out of hotels is pretty great. No cleaning up, fresh sheets, and awesome accommodations. All of that is great until you realize you experience it all alone. Having a partner would have made every good thing about hotels infinitely better and every drawback reduced to nothingness. Without such a companion the beds get lonely and the meals even more so.
• As I briefly mentioned, eating alone is a real bummer. I ate most of my meals at the bars of the eating establishments, so that perhaps the mere presence of people will make it slightly more bearable. I had some interesting conversations with people occasionally but mostly I sat alone and my only conversation was with the bar tender. Lets focus for a moment on those interesting conversations I alluded too, in my first hotel in Erie I ate at the bar one night and sat between a Marine and a salesman. The three of us chatted for a good while. We talked of many things but what stood out to me, was that during the conversation the topic of our ages came up. Unbeknown to them  I was the youngest at 25, the Marine was 28 and the salesman 35. Before I told them my age it was agreed I looked equally as old as the salesman. So to them I looked 35. I have gotten 30 before but not 35. I pressed them as to why they thought I looked so old; they explained I was dressed much better than your average 25 year old ( I was wearing a sport coat and a button up shirt), also I appeared to have been through some stuff in my life. I have had a less than perfect life but I hope that is not the first impression I give off. It is really here nor there but like I said, it was interesting. Secondly, I had conversations were I lied about my work, to a) see if I could get away with it, and b) perfect my skills at lying and thinking on my feet. It is always interesting to pick a career that I know little about and then attempt to sound credible. I believe I did a very decent job.
• Pennsylvania is quite beautiful. Driving around has been a lot of fun. For the most part the weather was perfect. There was some rain and it was a little cool some days but I couldn’t have asked for better weather. My first stop was Erie. Lake Erie still had ice on it, and the area was quite nice. Hermitage was nice as well but a little small for me. Pittsburgh was great I had no idea it was so hilly. I have decided that if you learn to drive in Pittsburgh you will either be a great driver, or you will be dead, there is no in between. Indiana and State college are both college towns and as such seemed cool, but I spent very little time there. I would love to come back when spring is in full swing and tour the state, until then I say that Pennsylvania is a beautiful state and I highly recommend it

That is a brief summary of my experiences traveling in PA. But the story does not end there, my trip was filled wither personal disappointments. It seemed every it was some new personal disappointment.  I will not sit here and whine and moan about them, what I will say is that I have been forced to look on the bright side and move on. I am no where near where I wanted to be at this point in my life but I am working hard to get there. I will not let set backs keep me from moving forward. I have a great internship and a wonderful family, perhaps I will find someone to share it with but I won’t worry about it. I have been blessed with more wonderful women in my life than any man should be. I will leave it at this,  I am certainly ready to come home and get back to my semblance of a normal life.