My First Book Club

You would think, given my lifelong love of books, that I would be the veteran of many a book club by now, but I’m not. Every time I watch The Jane Austin Book Club, I want to start one, but I never have enough bandwidth to start yet another new thing in my life. Then one day, a like-minded colleague came to work brimming about a book club she’d attended the night before.

It turned out to be a book club for women focused on non-fiction. I was hooked! They only meet quarterly and she gave me the name of the next selection, Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe and I promptly ordered it. It ended up taking me until yesterday to finish, partly due to being over-committed to other endeavors, and partly due to it being a very fascinating story told in a meticulously journalistic manner.

So, after work, I headed to a nearby city to attend the meeting. Upon arriving, I was greeted warmly and, donning my name tag, I gathered up some refreshments and found a seat. We were in a conference room of a bank. The room was filled with about 30 professional women of mostly my own age or older. There was one woman in her thirties, and one who looked like late teens or early twenties (who turned out to be the daughter of a founding member).

Also in attendance were three immigration lawyers and a non-citizen law clerk. These four were invited to the discussion to bring some much needed expertise to the topic of the book. The book follows four Mexican American girls in Denver from high school through college, two of them undocumented. The events unfold against a backdrop of hot debate on immigration reform prompted, in part, by the murder of a local police officer by an undocumented Mexican man.

Now, I’m not sure how a typical book club goes, but this meeting ended up as mostly a Q&A of the experts about all sorts of immigration issues, some drawn from the book, but many not. Here in Detroit, we have similar issues. I’ve been drawn, especially, to the plight of children, whether documented or not. I once had the privilege of hearing a first-hand account by a girl, documented, whose family was deported when she was seventeen and how and why she forced her family to leave her behind.

Meanwhile, my colleague was running late and arrived minutes after the bank guard locked up and went home. She did text me, but in the heat of the discussion I didn’t hear the soft tone alerting me to a text. We connected the next day and I filled her in on the event. Just about everyone there knew her personally, she’s that kind of person, a maven, bringing diverse people together who have a common bond.

I’m already excited to attend the next meeting, which won’t be until October. We voted for our next book and it is Give and Take by Adam Grant. Meeting quarterly with a new group of women may not meet my current needs to meet just these sort of women, but meet them I will and I hope some friendships ensue for the next phase of my life.

Find the Joy in the Journey…find it in every facet of your life!

The Downside of International Business Travel and Why I Do It Anyway

I’m sure my husband could write a dissertation about the downside of being the traveler in a commuter marriage and I could do likewise as the one holding down the fort…but, even as the one who’s home most of the time, I have my travels to tell about. I recently wrote about a week in Germany after writing about the upside of business travel. Home again, it’s time to reveal the ugly side of things!

I’ve traveled through the Frankfurt airport a number of times over the years. The one I recall the most vividly was leaving Frankfurt when I was pregnant with my older daughter. It was the Fall of 1994 and the bombing of 1985 must have still been reason for heightened alerts, because military personnel with AK47’s patrolled the airport. I found this frightening on top of not being able to speak the language. So, when I went through security and the female guard wanded me, then proceeded to jab the wand into my pregnant belly, I bit my tongue and refrained from complaining.

These days, there are no visible military personnel at the Frankfurt airport, nor any visible weapons of any kind. I found out this last trip, that it’s a breeze to fly in to the airport. Immigration is quick and questionless…just a scan of your passport and the ker-thunk of an entry stamp. There’s really no customs at all…you just walk straight on through with your luggage. Leaving, however, is another story.

A year and a half ago I flew out of Frankfurt for the first time since the “wanding” incident. I set off the metal detector and was subjected to a hand-frisking. I had Diana Ross and her experience at Heathrow in 1999 top of mind.  Once again I bit my tongue as I experienced something similar to what happened to Ross…needless to say I didn’t fondle the security guard; I’m a little more in touch with reality than the Supreme Diva.  As I departed Germany this time, I was prepared and sure enough the metal detector went off again. Now, I really don’t understand the fact that men are told to leave their belts and watches on, yet the relatively smaller amounts of metal in my underwire are enough to set off the alarm. It does seem like a bit of a conspiracy. So, I got the pat-down and strap-snapping as the prior time, but this time no actual fondling. Thank heaven for small favors.

I landed a little after one in the afternoon on Saturday and my husband came to pick me up. I was so happy to be home and to see him…he’d only been home a  short time when I’d left and I knew he had to be a thousand miles away first thing on Monday morning due to an issue that had come up suddenly. I stayed awake as long as I could, but was asleep by the time he finally got his flights arranged. I remember waking briefly around 4 a.m. and seeing him get up…but I fell back to sleep almost immediately.  I was up for an hour or two before I found the note…my husband had flown out on a 7 a.m. flight. It turned out that due to all the spring break flights, my husband’s choices had been severely restricted.

Three days after landing, I’m still a bit jet-lagged. Going back to work has been hectic. Although I worked while I was away, that didn’t stop the home-office work from piling up. My schedule this week is full of back-to-back meetings, leaving no time at all for filing expense reports, getting through my over-full emailbox, or just stopping for a few moments to do some critical thinking.

So, on balance, I’m still happy that I took this trip to Germany. I was able to strengthen the bonds of my far-flung team, work through a few complex issues, and still had time to squeeze in a bit of sight-seeing. Next time an opportunity arises where I can learn more about the world outside of my own horizons, I’m pretty sure I’ll jump at it; jet-lag and security “pat-downs” not-withstanding.

Find the Joy in the Journey and put the rest in perspective!

Related Posts:

The Upside of Business Travel: Germany, Here I Come!

Six Days in Germany–Part I: Making the Most of a Free Evening

Six Days in Germany–Part II: More Nightlife in Cologne

Six Days in Germany–Part III: Last Evening in Cologne

Six Days in Germany–Part IV: Aschaffenburg