Goodbye, North Carolina! This morning I’m off to the Garden State, an ironic nickname for the New Jersey I’ll get to see since I’ll probably be indoors except when going from airport to car to hotel to car to client to car to airport. More like the Fluorescent State or the Air Conditioning State.

Luckily my own garden is enjoying plenty of free water from the sky (saving Bruce from watering twice a day) and a bounty of tomatoes:

Last night’s tomato harvest. Photo by Bruce

Those tomatoes would have been an excellent addition to my hotel buffet breakfast. Ever since the above photo sparked a discussion on Facebook last night regarding best ways to eat tomatoes, I’ve been thinking about a tomato sandwich. Yes, mayo, some kind of delicious bakery bread (sourdough perhaps), lightly toasted, thickly sliced, warm from the garden tomatoes, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, maybe a few basil leaves.

Or maybe some roasted sweet 100s, tossed in olive oil with slivered garlic, finished with some roughly torn basil, tossed with a bit of pasta. Or on top of some fish.

Now you know my dirty gardening secret: I’m only doing it because I love to eat good things. Growing my own lettuce has ruined most restaurant salads for me and tomatoes are consistently disappointing during my room service dinners.

As you may have gathered, I’ve been eating lots of room service and hotel food during this intense work week. But in addition to traveling to see clients and building powerpoint decks, I’ve dusted off my writing skills and I’ve been making copy late into the night.

Despite the crazy hours, it’s been a lot of fun sitting in my hotel room cranking out the work. It’s been a personal way back machine to late nights and amazing work–the work that was the path to getting to where I am today.

It’s been rejuvenating, exhilarating even.

Good thing I’m liking the pace: I get to do it all over again tonight.