Musings on Choices

It's 4:30am again.  I should be in bed.  I do think I'm going to try to get a little more sleep but my confidence level isn't high.  I'm in a hotel right by the airport where the breakfast service starts at 4:30 so I may go down to see what's there.

To be fair, I did get to bed relatively early.  I didn't wait up to watch the election results come in.  I was fairly confident that things would work out in President Obama's favor but all I could do was my part.  I was 3rd in line at 6:15am yesterday morning on a chilly, rainy morning where the polls opened at 7.  By noon I was in Raleigh, at work.

My ex texted me to ask who I voted for.  I'm confident that she knew, and of course she voted for the "other" guy.  I'm glad she, and millions of others, will wake up disappointed today.  I'm more than glad....I'm relieved, I'm encouraged, I'm optimistic....I'm a bunch of things.  I can't for the life of me imagine waking up to news that the "other" guy had won.

I don't suspect it will affect my life balance much today.  Work in NC, home life in SC.  I'd love to head back home today or even tomorrow but I'm not sure either of those will come to pass.  I can do much of what I do remotely, but when there are meetings to attend, well, I need to be here in person.  I'm not complaining about it so much - the hardest parts are the time in the car to get between a and b, and my inability to set up a normal routine back home.

I want to take some photography courses.  I want to take some tennis lessons.  I want to do a number of things that typically require me to be around on some weekday evening.  I don't have that luxury right now so until that settles out it's a matter of taking what you can get and making the best of it.

These are decisions I've made.  I suppose I could find something closer, or more "convenient".  But at the time I made the best choices I could with the information I had.  I wrote something a while ago about "going with your gut" and I've done that.  It is working out so far.  And, in all honesty, I hope to be able to balance the many parts of it (I've only mentioned some of them here so far) for a long while to come.

Decisions are choices.  I like to think I can keep my some of the self-inflicted pain to a minimum based on the choices I make and my commute isn't really "pain".  I've got a good, stable, interesting, well-paying job with people I actually like in an environment that can be loose and fun so there's really no downside to that.  Except, of course, that my desk is 300 miles away from my bed.

I have friends making choices that make me shake my head sometimes, but that's their deal not mine.  I'll give my advice when asked, but in the end I've got friends who will make the wrong decision 9 times our of 10.  It's not necessarily that they're wrong and not right - it's that they're wrong because they end up causing more drama than they're worth.  I can count on one hand the number of people I can ask about things in my world who I think would provide valuable input but in the end I'm the one who has to make those choices.

I remember when my son my ex- would pound into his head that life is about choices and choices have consequences.  Oy.  She was right, of course, but that's not the kind of things a 9 year old wants to hear over and over and over.

Anyway, that's alot of musing for a pre 5am mind but that's where my mind went.  I think I'll get up, get into the shower, get the day going early, and then leave early.  I want to see a movie later so maybe that'll help the day go quicker.  We'll see....