Absent.

I have been a little absent here for the past ten days and not because I was relaxing or holidaying or anything like that. Quite truly, this has been two of the craziest weeks of my life between bargaining a final deal, responsibilities to my union at the fed convention, and the complete chaos inspired by Stephen Harper last Thursday. Although I had this past weekend off and was home, I spent most of it doing chores and laundry – between catching up with a few friends. This because I am about to plunge into another six weeks of insanity as I hit the road to sell the tenative agreement at ratification meetings around the province.

I have yet to tell my employer that I am gone most of December and half of January. (But then they get me back full time – since ratification brings an end to bargaining!)

But I am back in BC for the forseeable future at least which makes things somewhat easier. No time-zone changes, no five-hour flights. As much as possible I am trying to re-establish my schedule of working out and writing, so that even when I’m on the road I don’t feel that I’ve given all of myself up – but if I seem a tad absent these days – it’s because I don’t have a choice but to be at the moment.

And I think that’s something not everyone in my life gets. Like, when I ran for office in my union last spring that actually meant something in the way of greater responsibility and leadership. And sometimes I am called on unexpectedly to rise to some activism and I don’t get the luxury of refusing it. Even when I’m tired. Even when my family misses me. It’s something I actually take seriously

I’m really lucky to have a partner who does understand, because really he’s been ignored an awful lot lately at the behest of my ever-changing schedule. It’s just a weird time though and he realizes (like I do) that it’s not going to go on and on. There is a definitive end date for my bargaining talks (January 15) and that should pretty much wrap up the crazy travel of the last few months. Then I can focus on the local stufff, and writing, and learning how to knit.

On the plus side, I’ve got lots of idea for blog posts at the moment so at least I can get back to that during the in-betweens!