Business Trips and a Pregnant Wife

In yet another strong showing in my bid to become "husband of the year", I spent last week in San Francisco attending a global sales conference with my company, while Shelley was only weeks away from giving birth to our second child. Nothing like cutting it too close. Needless to say I kept the Blackberry close at hand...while Shelley made contingency plans with various friends from our church congregation just in case. I knew that if I missed this birth I would never live it down. Luckily everything worked out fine. No baby was born while I was gone.

The decision to go was made at the last minute, only after the doctor seemed pretty sure that our baby wasn't about to be born. But sometimes doctors can be wrong. My brother-in-law left for a medical school interview after receiving such assurances and his wife had the baby with him listening in on the phone.

Business trips are much more difficult now than they were when we lived in LA. First of all, Shelley would always say that she would miss me whenever I would leave for a trip. But now she's also envious - and I don't blame her one bit. I've been back to the U.S. twice since our move in January. I've tried to make it up to her, though. I have a "honey-buy" list and I lug Sure-Jell, canned pumpkin filling and corn masa, etc., in an extra bag back to Japan for the family. Secondly, it's harder on Anthon. He had to be pried from my arms so I could board my train. I could hear him crying all the way onto the train platform. That makes me feel good to know I'm giving my son abandonment issues! And it's harder on me. For a variety of reasons, it's just harder to be away from family now. Business travel can be fun, but it is lonely and I'm missing my family much more.

On the bright side, I have to say that I was glad to get to come to this conference. I saw my 90 year old Grandmother, my parents, my sister from New York and her new little baby girl, and I had a ton of opportunities to shoot pictures...a rarity. The meetings were productive.

You know the cheesy cliche, 'home is where the heart is'? I think it's true. Though we've been in Japan only three months, it feels like home to me. Having been in LA twice now since the move, I felt myself that home was with my family back in Tokyo. And that I couldn't wait to get back there to see them.

I took some pictures of my time there. Click on any of the pictures to take you there.