Welcome to Magenta Suede Travel!

I’m not really the blogging type.  I’ve never had a blog and I never thought I would ever have a blog.  But maybe that’s just because I never had anything worth blogging about.  Still, I’m not even sure who is going to read this blog.  That said…

Since July of 2009, when I took a new job with a consulting firm, I have traveled A LOT.  I wanted to go back and count how many plane rides I’ve taken, how many hotels I’ve stayed in, and how many airports I’ve walked through during the past year and a half, but that would take time that (as a busy, traveling consultant) I do not have.  So please trust me when I say that I have traveled A LOT, and continue to do so every day (I average about one plane trip a week, and usually two). 

I usually travel alone, so when I travel I observe, and, being bored at airports and in airplanes and other modes of transportation, I have found myself jotting down a lot of notes.  I have always liked airports, and they have always fascinated me.  The range of emotions expressed at airports has always made me wish I was a better photographer so that I could capture them in an artistic way.  I see the faces of hundreds of strangers every day, but the emotions they express are all familiar, and connect us all as human beings.  In the sea of strangers where I am constantly swimming, this provides a level of comfort for me in my traveling life, where I’m always saying goodbye or hello, or experiencing some range of emotions in between. 

Being inextricably connected to all of these strangers through our common, familiar emotions is only one thing that comforts me as I travel, and I have found myself looking out for additional comforting characteristics of airports, hotels, and methods of transportation.  These characteristics may seem out of the norm for someone who travels so much.  For example, I don’t obsess about more efficient ways to pack or strategies to reduce my belongings.  While that would be practical of me, being in possession of my “things” provides me with a level of familiarity and feeling of home when I’m on the road.  As such, I carry my entire self-contained travel-ready office in a magenta suede briefcase.  This briefcase is neither practical nor ergonomic (in fact, it is quite heavy), and it only ONE of my carry-on bags, but it makes me happy.  A light packer and efficient traveler I am not (however unfortunate that may be).  But I have embraced this about myself.  That’s traveling the magenta suede way.   

While I am not a blogger, and never planned to become one, I am a writer, and also a helper (I’m an oldest child and the only girl, and also a Capricorn, so “helping” is pretty much ingrained in me).  So I thought I’d start a blog with useful (but maybe not entirely practical) information about the places I have been and the observations I have made along the way.  These observations may not help you, the efficient business traveler.  But I know in my heart that there are other Magenta Suede Travelers out there, and YOU may find this information useful, or at least find a few things that will help make your journey a little bit happier as you traverse across the country, or around the world…

[Please feel free to post comments, questions, or additional suggestions you have regarding the topics I discuss.  And as a disclaimer, I am not posting my information in chronological order, mostly because I don’t want anyone tracking my every move.  So I’m hoping there’s a search feature you can use to find the information you need – I plan to organize the blog by airport, using airport codes.  Thanks for reading!  And please pass along www.magentasuedetravel.blogspot.com to your friends if you think they will enjoy it or find it helpful.]