I’ve been on the road since last late september. Living out of the suitcases for over a year is starting to wear me out. To be exact, what i’m feeling right now is probably not just from traveling; 14hour-days probably have much more impact. Come to think of it, it’s really the combination of the two.

There are some exciting aspect of traveling and living off of corporate account. I don’t have to cook anymore (well, personally I really miss cooking); I order whatever I want without looking at the price first; I don’t have to laundry anymore; I don’t have to clean up my room; I don’t have to pay for my cell phone bill, ….

But after the initial excitement phases out, the reality starts to hit.

The most depressing aspect of it is that after work, I have no friends to go to. Yes coworkers hang out once in a while, but coworkers and friends are not the same. It’s true that New York has the best lounges and restaurants, but what’s Happy Hour without good old friends? I remember I used to have this Happy Hour multi-tab-spreadsheet that we passed around to record the location, phone number, happy hour hours, special deals and review of all the restaurants we heard of, had been to, or wanted to hit. Aaaaah, and the power of FRESH WILD SALMON in Pacific Northwest!

The other thing has to do with fitness. Do I miss 24 hour fitness!! The gyms in NYC all closed around 10:30. I don’t know how New Yorkers do it. They work crazy hours yet they don’t have 24 hour gyms? Back in NY I could rarely make it to the gym. The hotel gyms weren’t bad though. The best hotel gym-I gotta give credit to Marquis. It’s about 2000 squarefeet (I think), has about 10 elliptical trainers among other things. All the cardio machines have individual TVs on. And it’s 24 hours. Westin Times Square wasn’t too bad. Although it’s fairly small, it had 3 elliptical trainers and all cardio machines have TVs on. The only thing was they closed at 10:30 too.

Now that I moved to Westin at Princeton, my fitness life dwindled to almost none. The gym has one elliptical trainer that doesn’t work. Refusing to use treadmill, I’m left only with a stationary bike. No individual TVs on the machines. There’s a small TV in the room WITHOUT A REMOTE. Good thing I always carry tons of exercise DVDs with me when I travel, so that’s now the main source of my workout routine. However, I can’t really do weight training anymore, so my muscle has been loosing up and flab has slowly, umm no quickly, crawled back.

Since I work most of the weekend, wardrobe choice is severely limited. I have less than 5 sets of outfit to mix and match. It doesn’t really bother me anymore though. My coworkers, clients and I spend so much time together, I honestly doubt anybody cares what I wear. But lack of wardrobe choice and lack of working out have downward sprial effect on each other. I don’t feel I look good cuz I have nothing to wear, so I feel less motivated to work out, and now I never want to dress up because I’m so out of shape…

I suppose i CAN live without gossipy friends (just kidding!!) and get used to my new flabby arms and thighs. Eating without a budget is the major killer. I was actually happy leaving New York’s worldclass fine restaurants behind, and I thought I could finally quit eating at Princeton. I miscalculated. Now instead of gaining weight on exquisit fine cuisine, I gain weight on greasy Chinese, deep fried chicken and ribs, and tons of chocolate and candies. Really, it’s not worth the calories! But loneliness and stress has got the better of me, and I can’t stop stuffing my face with junk food.

I can’t wait to move to San Francisco, the part of the world that 24 hour fitness rules, that people don’t work 25 hours a day–hmm come to think of it, I’ve heard some rumors about SF office’s crazy hours, and people bike, hike, camp, basically have a life outside of work.