It's strange, but I find my desire to travel is slowly growing less intense. It's not that I don't jump at the chance to go new places, but several destinations have become less interesting to me. For instance, as dearly as I love Britain I can't get very excited about going there any more. I'd go back to eastern Africa in a heartbeat, and I very much want to visit Chile, but I can't get too jazzed about spending any of my precious vacation time in Europe unless it's too cheap not to go. I mean, I could get worked up for almost any destination but I don't feel the immediate surge of adrenaline that I used to just from contemplating a trip. Now I see it in terms of not just the trip itself but the logistics: someone to care for the pets, the travel time itself (most of what I want to see is a good 14 hour flight away), having to cope with being unable to drink local water and the inevitable vague stomach upset from eating unusual foods. It's not quite enough to keep me home, yet, but I see that day coming.'

On the other hand, a snappy weekend here and there sounds fine to me still. Ecuador for four days? Okay! An overnight in Bermuda? You betcha! My schedule doesn't get out of whack if I just take three days off, two of them on a weekend. And in my line of work being sleepy and jet-lagged on a Monday morning is par for the course. It's not like we get free tickets any more, though sometimes we do. Mostly what we get are faxes notifying us of inexpensive opportunities to visit a destination for a couple of days. I'm definitely going to visit the Caribbean this fall if I see a fax with a rock bottom rate for St. Thomas or the Caymans. Yes, I do have a great career, thanks very much. It's not without its downsides, but the downsides are no worse than any ordinary office job, and the perks are much, much better. In fact, I doubt I'm quite as jaded about taking long vacations as I sometimes think. It just takes one fantastic offer to get me worked up again for a long trip someplace exotic.