Up in the Air

Since I first saw the previews for it, I've wanted to see Up in the Air since it had the potential to be very close to home for me. I wasn't disappointed. Warning, there is a SPOILER ALERT BELOW…. I don't want to ruin it for anyone- it's safe to read until you see the Spoiler alert. The movie was very good, and shows what life can be like on the road. While there are many similarities between the George Clooney character and I, there is one BIG difference. Once I get to a city, I am generally with people I know.

I think the biggest similarity I have with him (besides the requirement for Travelpro luggage (more on that later) is how empty our homes were. It took me about a month of living in my current apartment before I realized why I was so comfortable in it. My apartment feels like a hotel room. From the exterior hallway with it's rows of doors-



to the privacy latch and peep hole,




it feels like a hotel room. Generally my refrigerator is empty. Sure it may have leftover beer from my last party and 3 month old milk, but that classifies as empty to me.

Lots of people have asked me when will I get off the road and start having a normal life. What people don't understand is that this travel is my normal. I don't know anything else. I don't know if I can handle life off the road. After a stressful point in my life a bunch of years ago, I was comforted by sitting in an airplane seat. That is where everything felt right. I was at peace. Very few people I know have successfully made that transition. It's not an easy transition to make either way. Life on the road is very independent. Eating dinner by yourself in a restaurant isn't something that you get used to right away. Eating room service every night isn't practical. Eating fast food every night isn't healthy.

It is very difficult to have a successful relationship when life on the road is involved. Many years ago I was at a hotel outside of Philly while covering a Villanova basketball game and there was an very attractive young lady at the bar hitting on a slightly older guy. They were both business travelers, he run down, her full of energy. I recall they were both involved with other people, and this was seemingly a problem for him, but when she uttered the following "Don't you know the mantra of all young travelers?-- What goes on on the road stays on the road." he forgot about anything else and they started getting closer to each other, more flirting and eventually left the hotel bar together. To this day, I've never made a pick up on the road. I don't have that in me. I don't know if its catholic guilt or what. I see people I work with do it all the time, and I hear stories about when they were younger. I can only imagine how bad it was before they were married.

The other side of the relationship coin is for the one who isn't traveling. It's got to be tough for that person to stay faithful as well. While there may not be as many opportunities for infidelity, the time spent apart adds up and people have needs. Someone who is in a relationship with a traveller needs to be just as independent. They need to be able to function without their partner for long periods of times.
SPOILER BELOW











Getting back to the movie, it ends up showing all of this, although not quite directly. Assuming you have seen the movie- George Clooney is the person who doesn't know how to function not on the road. He has traveling down to a science. He knows his job in and out. For him, life on an island is best because the way he is wired, it is easiest. You do get weighed down by all those things in your life. One could argue that those which weigh you down also keep you grounded. I used to be great in keeping in touch with people and making sure that I would see everyone. Now I suck. If Isee my family maybe 6 times a year, talk to them 15 times I think that would be a lot. I went over a year without seeing a friend, and the way we knew is that her daughter had been pretty much a new born the last time I saw her and I was attending her 2nd birthday party.


We actually learn two things form the young woman who he is teaching how to travel. The first is from her boyfriend who we never meet. The partner of a traveller has to be strong. They can't be upset that the person is gone, and they have to be able to function on their own. In the young woman herself, you can see someone who just isn't cut out to do the travel. She is wide-eyed and eager, but the road (and her job) ends up wearing her down. She left for the job she was meant to do, unencumbered by her boyfriend. While on the subject, you have to make decisions for yourself and not for anyone else. Her going to Wichita because her boyfriend got accepted to some school there was asinine. She took a soul sucking job that she never could have been happy at for her partner. As soon as things started to go bad, he left her, and she was still in Wichita at a soul-sucking job. When I moved to be closer to C, I gave up the NY metropolitan area, but not much else. My job remained the same and I lost that what if factor. The character should have taken her dream job in San Francisco and dealt with the long distance relationship. She also had the same dream that I have had on occasion- How fun would it be to pack a suitcase and head to the airport and pick a destination to go to on the spot with Frequent Flier miles.

From George Clooney's love interest in the movie you see the worst. She goes on the road and lives by that same motto. When she is doing that she is not only endangering her own marriage and family, but taking advantage of other people as well. The Clooney character thought he had finally met his equal, his match and was starting to let her into his life. He brought her to his sisters wedding, let him into his very inner circle and was finally ready to settle down, only to have his hopes crushed. He was ready to give up everything he believed in. Being a member of the 10 million mile club really doesn't mean anything in the big picture. It would take someone years to recover from that if ever.

I am well on my way to 2 million miles currently. The funny thing is that when you travel so much to accumulate that many miles or hotel points the last thing you don't know what to do with them. I gift my miles more than I use them. I have used them to fly friends internationally, to send my parents on vacations, to help friends get to where they need to be in family emergencies.

For the Travelpro comment above- on my trip out to Minneapolis this past Thursday, my bag of 10 years finally broke. The handle came out from baggage claim locked in the up position. I couldn't get it down. The person next to me was shocked and questioned me when I didn't go to the Baggage office to complain. I told them that the bag had lasted me 10 years. It survived over 1000 flights. I think that I got my moneys worth out of the bag and it's time to replace it. If you're in the market for luggage, get the Travelpro Crew series. It's a little more expensive, but you won't be disappointed.