800 Miles in Five Days

Yesterday I returned from a week of travel back-and-forth and back-and-forth across Western and Southwestern New York State as a visited eight graduate fairs recruiting for our programs. While it's tiring to pack and repack, and lug my stuff from one fair to another, it's a lot of fun meeting prospective students from other colleges and reconnecting with colleagues (over dinner is the funnest time of all!). The main thing that kept me entertained during long hours in the car (and the inevitable extra time spent driving around since I get lost A LOT), was listening to NPR, and all the great programming they have on during the day and at night.

When I'm going for a long distance, or will be visiting a lot of schools in a short time, I usually rent a car. This time I was "fortunate" enough to score a PT Cruiser. When I heard that was the car I was getting, my first question was, "Do you have anything else?" They are the UGLIEST cars and I hoped no one would recognize me driving it. I felt like Michael Scott in The Office.

The highlight of my trip was on Sunday night, when I checked into The Old Library Inn Bed & Breakfast in Olean. When I called to confirm my reservation, the Inn Keeper let me know that I was one of two guests for the night, and also told me that they (the Inn Keepers) stay "off premises." Okay....I wasn't sure how to feel about that. I had never stayed at a B&B where the Inn Keeper was not present. But, I overcame my reservations (no pun intended) and arrived to a beautiful, old (1895) house that was very much in the style of The Capitol Hill Mansion Inn (where we stayed in Denver). By the time I came back to my room after a great dinner at a Bistro 188 (a "nice" dinner was not easy to find in Olean, which seemed to close down on Sunday nights), I returned to my room and was still the only car in the lot.

Realizing that I was the only guest (so far) in that big house was a little disconcerting and sort of scary. But, I told myself to BUCK UP and act my age (39 and holding), and was soon drifting off for a fitful night's sleep during which I commanded myself to keep my eyes closed. All in all, it was a great place to stay with a delicious breakfast, and I feel like I grew up a little more that night as I faced my irrational fears of staying alone (which I wasn't because I was joined by a young Rabbi at breakfast)!

It was great to get home to the laundry and the dishwasher and the...wait! Take me back to the hotel life where someone cleans my room every night and does the laundry!