JD Surfaces...

Well hello world.  Two weeks ago this past Wednesday I was on my way to the train station at 4:40 in the morning.  My train was due to leave in 10 minutes but I had enough time to make it, at least until one of the tunnels I had to take to get there was stopped for some ridiculous reason...at 4:45am.  I made it to the train station in time to watch my train pulling away from the platform.

Thus started the next two weeks of my life which I shall deem "The End Of Freelance Season."

After a good bout of yelling at everyone and everything, because it was not my fault, I turned my truck around and started out for DC for the gig I was to show up for six hours later.  There was not time to catch the next train from across the bay as it would arrive too late and catching a plane would just not help either.

I arrived in the DC area north of Fredericksburg in time to catch rush hour and dealt with it another 40 to 50 miles all the way to Pentagon City where I now had to find a place to park my truck for the next five nights without spending $200.  My lodging plans included two hotels, the first for one night which had no inexpensive parking, and the other for the rest of my stay because it did, which YB and Gman would be taking advantage of as they were to join me Friday night.  So I decided to find a shortcut past 395 taking me directly to Pentagon City and the hotel I would eventually be staying at to try and convince the front desk to let me park my truck in their garage for an extra day.  They gladly accepted.

The parking bill for my truck alone was over $100 by the end of the weekend.

That Wednesday was my last NBA show of the season, Thursday was an NHL show, Friday was a college football scrimmage (YB and Gman made the trip up that day), and Saturday finished off the week with an NHL show.  Sunday was spent roaming DC with YB and Gman and one of YB's friends followed by a long three hour caravan home as YB brought the car and I had brought the truck because I my missed my train.  With that, my official freelance busy season came to a close.  Of course, I equated freelance with busy and tired, neglecting to see the real train coming down the tracks.

The following week I was scheduled to direct our live flagship show and our live-to-tape fledgling show, a feat which is all well and good if that's all you're going to do.  However, I had agreed to direct the in-house presentation of our Partner's Seminar, our high-roller donor event the details of which I won't go into except to say that I now know there are productions not worth my time and I will never agree to do again.

So Friday afternoon into the late evening was taken with pacifying worried-and-stressed-for-no-reason production folk, the same with Saturday early morning, afternoon and evening.  At some point during these two days I was exhausted to the point where I decided to pick up a cold which a few days later turned into full blown laryngitis but not before I called in sick Monday because I was so tired, traveled to DC Monday night to do my last NHL game of the season Tuesday, make the trip home Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning and grin-and-bear-it through a full day at work Wednesday.

Tuesday I knew something was wrong, Wednesday I started losing my voice, Wednesday night I completely lost it, yesterday (Thursday) was the same and started coming back last night, today I'm still worn out.  I called in sick yesterday and today and now have the entire weekend to go before facing the week on Monday.

I am going to enjoy every minute of it.