When it comes to commercial airline travel, I’d just as soon fly myself, but a business trip with strict time requirements in the middle of winter is not conducive to travel by light aircraft – so I find myself at an airport waiting to be crammed into a large aluminum tube that will, hopefully, transport me across the country with all the comfort of your average city bus. What makes this trip unique is that this is the first trip where I’m leaving my practice behind.

This trip was scheduled several months ago, so preparations have been fairly relaxed and the advanced notice made it possible to schedule around the few week days I will be away. My answering service has been briefed on how to manage client calls, there are no deadlines to be concerned with and I have every confidence that things will go smoothly. The problem is, I’m leaving my practice behind – this is not a day trip up to the city for a CLE or a few days off to catch up on farm chores; this is being a 1000 miles away with no easy way back – totally reliant on that thin digital umbilical cord of cell phone and internet to sustain operations.

Sure, I have a back-up attorney in case the unexpected would happen and I have every confidence that should an emergency arise he would be able to handle it; but we’re in new parent territory here – this is the first trip away from baby. I know the sitter is fully qualified, that all the emergency contact information is pinned to the refrigerator and that all will be well. Unfortunately, knowing and feeling are two different things and right now, the later is running roughshod over the former.

I had thought that it would be the stress of missing work, of losing revenue that would be the hardest part of traveling – after all being way over there means that I’m missing potential income right here. But no, I’m sitting here stressing over simple separation anxiety.