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Another Action Packed Weekend

4/30/2012

Living For the Weekend

My weekends are typically as busy if not more so than my week. In fact, for me as the principle home school parent, it feels as if there is no end to the week.

Anyway Saturday had me up around 5 getting ready to bicycle downtown so I could run to the top of a 45 story building, doing the Fight For Air Climb.

Results just came in today, and check it out I took first place in my age group and 16 overall, not to bad with a time of 9:04.17.

Then it was off to the Inman Park Festival which is just a couple of blocks from our place.

The parade is the highlight and for me the highlight of the parade are the gnomes attempting yet again for a Guinness Book Record which continues to elude them.

We were going to attempt to go out but ended up catching up with stuff on the DVR.

That night I crashed hard, between being up so early and then the festival and the beer at the festival and the heat.

Another Farmers Market Opens for the Season

The Grant Park Farmers Market had its opening on Sunday morning and even though we had been to farmers markets on both Wednesday and Thursday, we came out to show our support as well as pick up a few goodies.

Chores Galore

With our departure coming up quick, its back to organizing and packing. Figuring out what to take with us on the road, what to give away, what to ship back, etc. As well as making the little Rav even more road-trip ready. This time by adding a bicycle rack to the roof.

I thought about taking a break and heading back to the festival, but after being outside for just around 1/2 hour installing the rack, I had enough of the heat. Plus the Laker game was about to start.

Somewhere around half-time after making a quick beer run and realizing that there wasn't much room in the fridge because of all the wonderful fresh food we'd procured over the last few days in our bid to do our part to support the local economy it dawned on me that I had better get to cooking.

I ended sauteing chard with fresh garlic, roasting a chicken with a home made jerk marinade, stir frying a bunch of veggies as well as some oysters. Yummy stuff.

And the Lakers won their first game in the play-offs.

Hurray.

Sunday Night at the Movies

Or rather in front of the computer.

I'd been wanting to see the documentary Man on Wire for quite some time now. It tells the story of the tightrope walker who walked from the top of one of the Twin Towers to the other.

Some one at my circus school had seen it the week before and that was enough to prompt me to finally download it and watch it.

So glad I did. The three of us gathered around the computer in the office and watched in awe and wonder.

Such a great film, so inspiring.

I'll try to follow up this blog with more details on the weekend happenings, but I wanted to get this quick rundown out lest I run out of time, as so often happens.

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Lakers A Go Go

4/30/2012

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Not a Sports Fan

I don't watch a lot of sports and if I do its usually pretty specific and rather obscure. I watch the Tour de France, if I've got it on a DVR, otherwise I'll follow the highlights on-line, but I don't follow other cycling events or even own a road bike. I'll watch MMA or strongman competitions if I happen across them. As far as the popular ones like football, baseball, NASCAR, hockey, golf, etc., I've probably watched about an hour's worth combined in the last decade. It's just not one of my interests.

However I do like basketball, specifically Lakers basketball. I've been a fan since I watched Magic Johnson when I was a kid growing up in LA. I've stuck with them ever since, in the good times and the bad and in between. I listened to both of Phil Jackson's books and took Skye down the Championship celebration parades on more than one occasion.

This, That, and The Other

Let's see Kobe missed out on taking the Scoring Title again by .1 point. Metta World Peace suspended for not being so peaceful. And the Lakers come out as the third in the West, pitting them against the Denver Nuggets.

W is for Win, Bynum gets an A+

Lakers' win Game 1 by more than a little, 103-88.

Andrew Bynum made playoff history by tying Hakeem Olajuwon's and Mark Eaton's playoff record of 10 blocked shots. He finished with 10 points, 13 rebounds and the aforementioned 10 blocks, registering the first triple-double of his seven-year career and the first triple-dip for the franchise since Magic Johnson did it against the Chicago Bulls in Game 1 of the 1991 NBA Finals.

Pretty cool.

A nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon, especially because it was like a furnace outside.

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Fight For Air Atlanta-2012

4/29/2012

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Climbing Up Stairs for Fun and for Charity

When I signed up for Fight For Air Climb a couple of weeks back, I had every intention of actually training for it and really hadn't given much thought to fundraising.

As it turned out I didn't do any training for it and actually got into the fundraising aspect of it. And after several Facebook posts, a couple of e-mails and texts and some gentle nudging, I managed to well beyond my fundraising "goal" of $100.00 that you have to raise to participate. In the past, I have just paid the amount myself, but I decided to give it a try this time.

So again to everyone who donated on my behalf, a big thank you. I had a great time.

Southern Hospitality

I decided to bicycle to the race because it was just a couple of miles away. When I arrived at 191 Peachtree Tower, there was no sign of any event but there were Atlanta police officers hanging out at the corner. I figured that they had something to do with the climb, so I asked them if they knew where it was.

One of them pointed down the street and told me it was three blocks that way and then take a left.

As I pedaled away from downtown, I quickly realized I had just been pranked.

I went around the block and lo and behold.......

Southern Comfort

Yes, I am playing up on some of the stereotypes of the South but I got to get my licks in before I head back West. But seriously, one of the things that has been so great about being here in Atlanta is the easy going attitude and accessibility.

The climbs I've done in the past, in LA and Chicago were so much bigger, both in regards to the actual climb but even more so in the event itself. The logistics of parking and getting to the event and then waiting in line to begin the climb were so much more involved than with this one.

And Just Like That It Was Over

The climb was 45 flights of stairs, 1012 steps, which seems like a lot, but the one in LA was 75 flights and Chicago was 103, so relatively speaking....

I started out easy, having burned myself out in begining of the climb in the past. By the time I got to the 40th and realized how much more energy I had left I turned it a notch but it was too late to make that big of a difference in my time, which was around 9 minutes. They haven't posted the official times yet and my watch broke, but I was able to figure out my time from my Go-Pro footage.

Almost Like Being There

Here is a video of the climb, just imagine a stairwell full of stale muggy air being sucked up by dozens of folk racing up to the top.

A View From the Top...Sort Of

We didn't climb all the way up to the top, but the view was spectacular.

Not What I Was Expecting

In LA, you climb to the top and are outside on the rooftop.

In Chicago, you get to the 103 floor observation deck where can step out onto glass balcony and look straight down to the city street more than 1000 feet below.

In Atlanta, well let's be generous and say they're in the middle of a remodel.

I was actually pretty surprised to be unloaded into an unoccupied and unfinished floor; a sign of the economy I would think.

Racers, On Your Mark, Get Set

There were several teams, but the most creative as far as names go, had to be Cougars and Kittens.

I passed several of them on my climb and I'm pretty sure it was a cougar that was in the lead.

I met several nice people before and after the race. There was the guy who had driven down from Tennessee and is planning to do the Willis Tower later this year. Some one who had biked in and lives pretty close to us. I swapped race stories with a guy who had done the Georgia Tough Mudder and the Atlanta Marathon.
Like so many other things in Atlanta, its smaller and more accessible.

Fire Fighters Are Awesome

I was struggling for air in that stairwell and I was in shorts and a tank-top. To march up those steps in full gear including gloves, helmets and those heave boots, that is intense.

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Two Tales Retold

4/27/2012

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Family Outings

We went to see The Three Stooges on opening weekend because Cindy had worked on it and because Skye is a die-hard Stooges fan. We went to see Rua/Wulf because I thought it would balance the Stooges slapstick low-brow humor.

Little did I know how right I was and on how many levels.

Mixed Reviews

I was pleasantly surprised by the Three Stooges. I am sure that to a great extent this was due to low expectations, but it was also because it made me laugh.

The Farrlley brothers and the new stooges really got the spirit and tone of the original while putting it in a modern day setting. It was crude and rude to just the right degree. The timing and physical clowning worked. There was a sweet story and a wonderful supporting cast; Jane Lynch as the Mother Superior, Larry David as Sister Mary-Mengele, and Jennifer Hudson, as Sister Rosemary, not to mention Sofia Vergara, the guy from the Old Spice commercials and some of the cast from “Jersey Shore".

I really didn't think I would find it that funny. as the original Three Stooges were never my cup of tea, even when I was much younger. So all in all I had a great time. I could easily recommend this film.

I was going to add, especially if you have kids, but Skye gave it two thumbs down. As far as she was concerned, compared to the original it was a downright bore. I must say that I was surprised. Apparently there was too much of a story line in the movie version, she prefers non-stop nyuk, nyuk, nyuks, eye-poking and head-smacking.

An Evening at the Goat Farm

Just a little west of downtown Atlanta lies the Goat Farm, a sprawling complex of historic buildings on around 12 acres of land. It used to be an old cotton gin factory built in 1898, and now is an artist community of live/work spaces that hosts concerts, theatrical performances, dance performances and the like.

We've seen two other performances there and love the space and energy. So when I heard that they were doing an avante-garde retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, I was quite curious.

From the trailer I saw, I could tell it would be dealing with the metaphor of sexual awakening and teen-age rebellion and even though it did say it wasn't "kid friendly" , I thought they meant the 10 year old and under crowd.

I assumed that Skye would certainly be mature enough to handle the material.

You know what they say about assume.....

"NO MAN IS A WOLF UNTIL HE IS MADE INTO ONE"

With a tag-line like that I should have known it might get a bit racy.

But it started out so innocently at Little Red Riding Hood's aka Rua's house with her mother giving her very specific instruction and warning her about not straying from the path through the forest to grandmother's house. Heck we, the audience, were even given a guide to make sure that we didn't stray as we followed Rua on a journey that would meander around and through the buildings and grounds of the Goat Farm.

We started on our way just as the sun was setting. Our "guide" was a plucky impish little sprite who definitely pulled one into the almost interactive quality the performance had.

We would soon meet the "wolf" or would we or was he.

The interaction between Hemming, a man perhaps in his 30's maybe older and the young Rua were wonderfully creepy and yet not. One could see how this could go in any number of directions.

And it did. In fact, at one point the audience was split, one group would follow Rua and hear her story and the other, the one we were in would follow Hemming and see things through his perspective. And then we'd all reunite and enjoy an intermission and a tea party with wonderful cookies that "grandmother" had made.

Remember the Grandmother in the story?

So up until this point, it had been awkward for Skye at time, what with a foul-mouthed guide and Rua testing her temptress allure. But it was still the right amount of awkwardness, we were still at the PG-13 level. That was going to change and how.

Turns out grandma wasn't so innocent and may have had a hand in the making of the "wolf" Hemming had become.

When we followed the wolf into grandmother's house, well, grandma was in lingerie and the wolf, was not.

The wolf had shed his clothes, yep naked. And the centerpiece of the set was an enormous bed. Now were it not for being with our 13 year old daughter, this venture into experimental theater would be right up Cindy and my alley, however....

Grandmother's bedroom set as risque as it was, tamed in comparison to when we ventured into the belly set.

Skye had pretty much checked out at this point and Cindy was doing a fantastic job in buffering her from the intensity of the scene. Meanwhile Hemming's naked butt was a mere couple feet from my face and his howling, was loud and heartfelt and disconcerting. The scene was intense on its own, throw in the weirdness and guilt and confusion on my part for dragging our daughter along on this cultural experience and it heightened it.

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I wish we hadn't taken Skye. That said, I think there were "teachable" moments and opportunities and then some aspects that we'll just let be.

See Rua/Wulf if you can, but

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Sweetwater 420 Fest--3rd Time's a Charm

4/24/2012

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It's All in the Timing

I ran the 5k in Saturday morning, collected my race T-shirt and wrist band that got me into the festival and a free beer only to find that the festival didn't open for another 3 hours.

Cindy, Skye and I headed back several hours later. The walk was a bit longer and the event was much more crowded than any of us imagined. Regardless we paid for our wristbands, yes, I somehow managed to lose mine, but hey it's for a good cause.

We grabbed a couple of beers and then we both realized that we had all just committed that morning to trying to trim down a bit. As we looked around at the food, typical fair food, not at all conducive to losing weight, scanned the packed crowds and saw how bored our 13 year old daughter was, we agreed that under different circumstances we all might be having a better time.

The Green Zone

The one area where there was no crowd at all, was the area with the Environmental Awareness tents. I spotted a sign for biochar, which is something I had heard a little bit about but was certainly interested in learning more about.

They (bioponica.org)were using biochar, (really another name for charcoal when it is used for particular purpose, such as a soil amendment) in re-circulating water and soil-less garden beds, similar to hydroponics and aquaponics, but a little different.

So that was cool.

We went to the Kids Zone which was for kids not teens. The Circus School tent was pretty much about face painting. Again not for a teen, especially one there just with her parents.

So when I showed them an escape out the back of the festival where we could avoid going through the crowds, they went for it.

We were probably at the festival for less than an hour.

Two Step Forward, One Step Back

I had started my fitness routine again and showed tremendous restraint in the caloric kingdom and the thing I was most interested in at the festival was at 2 pm on Sunday. Cindy wanted to go into the office to do a little catch up work and Skye, well any excuse to not be under parental authority; so I was cleared to go and enjoy the Cask Ale Tasting.

Willy Wonka Starts Playing with Beer

Yes, "Nuttin' Butter" tasted like peanut butter, not a little, a lot, it was like drinking a peanut butter beer, which is amazing in a "wow, that's pretty crazy" kind of way, but not something that you want to have too much of, which is why the 5 oz. samplers were perfect. Grab all 5 for $15 and it is a bargain and a trip for the taste sensations.

Chubby Chocolate Bunny tasted like chocolate and seemed like chubbiness would be the outcome.

The juice beer, tasted, yes like a fruit beer, which I don't like and didn't like so much this time around either.

The King Pin which was an IPA with hop additions and black pepper was by far my favorite.

That said, so glad to have sampled the rest, a bunch of Everlasting Gobstoppers, as far as beers go.

Funny Seeing You Here

Just as I was finishing my last fermented fantasy brew, I saw a friend from the West Coast, who like so many of us in the film business, finds himself everyplace but home.

He actually stayed with us for a while when he worked in LA; he's from San Francisco. And he and his family returned the favor when Skye and I were racing in one of those Urban Dare/ Great Urban Challenges, can't remember.

Anyway ran into him and a couple of his co-workers and hung out for awhile before grabbing a couple of "local" and delicious fish tacos and then sliding out before I got into trouble, caloricly or .....

Jumped on my bicycle and pedaled on home, burning off a few of my indulgences.

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Great Urban Race- Atlanta 2012

4/23/2012

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Last Minute Entries

That was our official team name, for a few reasons. The obvious being how late I found out about the race and then signed us up for it.

The other being that Skye didn't want to run the race. Initially, I used her name as a place holder, fully intending and thinking that it would be easy for me to find someone to take her place. But I dragged my feet and even posted the wrong date when I was looking for a teammate. So the night before the race, I told Skye she was indeed going to be my race partner. As well as breaking it to Cindy that she would be spending a goodly part of her day off next to a computer and a phone, and that I hadn't found anybody else to help her out...yet.

OKAY Fine, But Where Are My Shoes

Typically, I set out all my gear the night before, put together a strategy and loose game plan and make sure I have my technical team put together as well as what might seem obvious, knowing where the race starts and how long it takes to get there. On race day I am there an hour or earlier before the start.

I, however, was out of sorts, still dealing with the TV show and not myself at all.

I didn't lay out my race gear, in fact I decided to go to the Farmers market and then swing by the office to pick up some of my things, which turned out to include Skye's running shoes. (I also managed to recruit, wonderful co-worker Chloe Lipp to help on internet support team.)

I had taken her shoes and mine to work to clean them up from the last mud run we did. I cleaned them out once but there was still sand and silt, not to mention they still looked pretty funky. So Skye had to scramble for a pair of back up shoes, which we would learn pretty early on were a bit too small.

We also had a tough time finding a "team outfit", in the end we ended up with our Circus Arts Institute shirts, which seemed apropos.

You Call These Clues?

As always the clues are devilishly difficult, which is why it is essential to have a support team manning the phones and the internet.

OK quick run-down on the rules and objectives: Run around town completing various tasks and making it to various check-points, using only public transportation or your peds, (running and walking). You can and should get help from the outside world to help solve clues, as well as help map and figure out when public transport is a viable option and when it is more trouble than its worth.

That last bit can be a tough one and more often than not depends on the racers themselves. More on that later.

Let's start from top left and move on down; we got a picture of 3 strangers drinking Coke, eating a cookie, doing cartwheels, with our Salsa teacher, threading beads

Doing the actual challenges are a breeze, getting to the checkpoints in an order that doesn't have you backtracking too much, that's the challenge.

We did end up backtracking a couple of times and there were definitely better routes. All told we probably ended up walking/running/limping around 8 miles.

This is an example of one of the clues. I had to put on a dive hood, snorkel and mask and then run down the sidewalk around 25 yards and back carrying a dive tank. Skye in the meantime was supposed to chow down on some dried squid.

Some Things We Picked Up Along the Way

We ended up with a bag of brochures and flyers from various check-points as well as a couple of MARTA day-passes, a funny wrist-sweatband and a little mouth wash that we bought as part of one of the challenges.

We ended up skipping a few of the check-points because we had to get back to the finish before the 5 pm cutoff, which means were had been out on the course pounding the pavement for 5 hours and it was sunny and warm.

It was tough and at times stressed us all out, but we persevered and had a pretty cool time after all was said and done.

Thanks to Skye for being my race partner and big thanks to Cindy and Chloe for being our support crew.

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Running the Sweetwater 420 5k and Out of a Haze

4/22/2012

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Seeking Inspiration

If at this point you thought I might throw in my two cents about cannabis, weighing in on the various controversies, getting into the many environmental benefits of the crop hemp or the "medical" marijuana discussion, you are off mark, even though I am curious about many aspects of the aforementioned "weed".

I signed up for the Sweetwater 420 5k around a week ago as part of my plan to kick-start my physical fitness routine. I often sign up for an event to attempt to motivate me.

And it has worked in the past.

Waking Up Confused and Unprepared

I had thankfully picked up my race packet the day before, but that had been the extent to my race preparations. I hadn't been running recently or doing much of anything physical which was understandable given my work schedule. What was really unlike me, was my pre-race-night prep.

Typically, even when I may not have trained as much as I would have liked, which is pretty much every time, I still make sure that for the day of the race I am ready. I know where the start is, how long it will take to get there. I've laid out what I'm going to wear. I know what I will be eating and drinking, both the evening before and the morning of. If the course has obstacles or something out of the ordinary, I have a good idea what they are and I am at least mentally ready for it. I also have a good idea of how I'm going to document the event, whether that be with my Iphone, or Go-Pro, or digital camera, the batteries are charged and memories cards and the like have space on them, etc

That was not the case.

I had things laid out but not in a way that made much sense. I had planned, sort of on biking there and covering the race with the Go-Pro with a bunch of Facebook posts.

Cindy ended up driving me there and I took one very bad photo on my Iphone.

Silver Lining

In the morning's madness, I started coming across things that reminded me of my priorities and the direction we were headed prior to my work detour.

Camping gear, Skye's home school stuff, various books and articles, maps etc, all things that brought me back to our journey and where we are on it, which by the way, we're not so sure of and know that it could shift as soon as we think we know.

It also got me up and out of the house and running, sort of.....

It's Only a 5K

Unless you are lined up in the very front of the pack, trying to gauge your running ability in a 5k with a couple of thousand entries is a fool's journey. The first mile is so packed, it is an accomplishment to maintain a jog and not trample or be trampled. I have on more than one occasion attempted to weave and jostle and dart about in trying to get a decent time. Its simply not worth the frustration. For a PR, find a small race with a course that allows you to go for it.

This race was particularly challenging in that regards. At one point a motorcycle cop was riding on the sidewalk with his siren blaring, attempting to move runners back onto the course. There were many bottlenecks where the 2000+ runners were forced through pathways which were meant accommodate 5 people abreast. It was a serious clusterf**k.

Even so, generally around half-way through a 5k the crowd thins out enough so that one could conceivably run. And even though I intellectually know that my run time at this point has little to do with how fast I could run this distance I glance down at my watch and decide try to make up for the slow start. For a marathon, this is easy and it in fact often works out better to be slowed by the crowd in the early miles. Even with a 10k you have 5 miles to improve your pace time.

So this last mile or so becomes a sprint.

Sprinting is hard, really hard. And if you haven't been training much, it can feel like you're going to die.

I never really got to that point, because I didn't see the second mile marker and when I came to the final turn where I could see the finish line it was just about 100 yards. It seemed almost unsportsmanlike to blow past people in those last feet.

I did it anyway.

I collected my race T-shirt and ambled home. That mile and a half walk took around the same time that the actual race did.

Lessons Learned

I need to get back in shape and its going to take time, work and dedication.

Atlanta is going to heat up quick. It was a cool, overcast day and I was dripping wet in the first mile. I had forgotten what a challenge it is to run in the South once things start warming up.

We are nomads.

It's again time to start downsizing and getting ready to hit the road.

Post Script

Results just in:

Place
693
Name
Jon Danniells
Bib Number
467
Age
44
Gender
M
Age Group
40-44
Chip Time
28:11
Gun Time
30:13
Pace
09:05/M

Funny note, the 13 people who "placed" before me, had slower chip times, the 13th one having the exact same chip finish time and of the 50 people who crossed the finish line before me only 5 had better chip times. 2058 finished the race.

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All Over The Map

4/18/2012

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Literally and Figuratively

Almost as soon as I finished that last job, I was planning some quick escapes as well as a trip out west so that Skye could celebrate her birthday with some of her "L.A." friends and so that I could get up in the clear fresh air of the Sierras and gaze upon the Pacific.

That job managed to bring up a lot of my "issues". It clarified a couple of them, confirmed a few, and some managed to go from clear to murky to clear and then got muddied up again.

It's been just about a week since I've been off and a bunch of my "stuff" got dropped off yesterday. How, what and why I've amassed more things is, well, kind of a centerpiece to today's blog-post, or at least an integral part of the conversation.

Reinventing Myself and the Wheel, Remembering My Priorities and Taking Stock

I was working on becoming a Certified Fitness Instructor so that I would have another way to generate income, not to mention it's something I have always wanted to do.

I now have a Georgia driver's license and joined the IATSE local here so that I could get hours towards my benefits and yet I ended up working the past couple months under a Local 44 contract and have worked only around 10 days as a Local 479.

I ended up working a ridiculous amount of hours, which was good for getting my benefits and making some quick cash but meant that I had no time to exercise or practice the various talents I had been adding to my repertoire.

To compensate, I ended up buying stuff; informational, collectable, practical stuff, so that when I did have more time, I would be able to more aptly pursue my previous goals.

Funny thing about how that line of logic does/doesn't work.

One of my intentions had been to incorporate circus skills into fitness training when I became a personal trainer, giving me "niche" as it were. This somehow grew into developing a hand-balance act which then grew into becoming a vaudeville-style strongman.

Which spawned a trip to Ohio.

Any Excuse for A Road-trip

I have always been fascinated by the circus and have been involved with strength training since I was in my teens.

And work has always interfered with both interests. I tried to pursue both interests in an off-kiltered manner, ushering for Le Cirque du Soliel and being a clown at children's parties and then working at a gym and at an aerobic/dance/yoga studio, but my "professional" life would end up having me move furniture and all sorts of odds and ends, which unbeknownst to me at the time, would get me in really good shape and build me a very solid core.

Enough with the back-story(pun intended), when I first read about the strongman picnic a year or so ago, I thought it would be so much fun to attend, but at the time, we were still in LA and a trip to northwest Ohio for a picnic seemed a bit excessive. And while it still is a bit far-fetched, now the timing works out and there are a couple of other reasons to make the trek.

High Points -- Another Collection

On our first road trip out to visit Cindy in Atlanta a few years back, Skye and I dipped down into Florida, just so she could say she had been there.

And then we went a few mile further, so that she could say she had been to the highest point in Florida, Britton Hill, which at 345 feet was lower than our house in LA.

When we reached said destination, we found a flyer for the Highpointers, a group that collects summits or rather the high points to each of the states. Skye and I jumped on board and currently have bagged 14 high points.

Campbell Hill, Ohio's high point is right on the way to Bowling Green and the Great Black Swamp Olde Time Strongman Picnic. And maybe, just maybe we'll veer off through West Virginia and amble up to Spruce Knob.

Back to Cali

“ "Go West, young man, go West. There is health in the country, and room away from our crowds of idlers and imbeciles." "That," I said, "is very frank advice, but it is medicine easier given than taken. It is a wide country, but I do not know just where to go." "It is all room away from the pavements. [...]" ” —- Josiah Bushnell Grinnell

We have been in Atlanta for almost a year now, and have made many wonderful friends and been involved in several amazing communities. It has become like home, and yet it isn't our home.

For me, I can't be so far away from the coast, from being able to gaze on open water where the horizon goes on forever. And maybe, I just don't want to settle or stay in one place.

But of course, I am only a part of this equation, and for Skye, Los Angeles is home, it's what is familiar. It's where her friends are.

We were all ready to head back on March 6 and then, well first Cindy landed a job and then I picked up that pilot.

We'll see what happens this next time around.

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Where DOES the Time Go? Where Did I Go?

4/15/2012

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Time-The One Thing Money Can't Buy....Sort Of

A month ago yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and our first day of shooting on Revolution, and the first day of the X3Sports Body Fat Loss Challenge!, which I had signed up for the day before.

It was a landmark day to say the least and Guinness and Bushmills had little to do with it. I had promised myself that I wouldn't let the job take over my life, but I knew that was an empty promise from the start. Meanwhile, in regards to the Challenge, I kind of figured I'd be giving up a month, in a 61 day challenge, making it only more challenging.

Here we are a month later, and at 5:15 am I'm writing this blog post cause I can't sleep, my sleep pattern still suffering from the job, which ended on Wednesday, but continues to haunt me via e-mail, phone calls and texts.

Here I am on my last day, trying to make heads and tails of a month of "just get it done" accounting and buying methodology.

From the 1st day of shooting til near the end I only had 2 days off and I pretty much worked on those days as well. It wasn't for the money. I didn't get paid for more hours than I care to remember, which I can scarcely do anyway; it's the "show must go on" mentality that is the film business. They bank on it even when they don't understand or get it.

Some Things I Missed

I had to skip out on just about all of my Circus classes, although I was able to make it to Skye's "show-off" performance.

I didn't make it to jiujitsu in over 5 weeks which made my return more than a little painful.

I missed out on many trips to the farmers markets.

But I did get more than enough hours for my pension and health benefits, which is why I took on this job and I ended up making some nice coin as well.

Haunting Images

It's amazing what can upset the apple cart so to speak.

This couch which had been approved ended up almost being my undoing. We bought it, but didn't use it and the repercussions of that were overwhelming to say the least.

Getting Back to My "Normal" Life

I've only been off for around 3 days and have managed to get to a matinee, make it to the Grand Opening of the Peachtree Road farmers market, run the Great Urban Race with Skye and attend a World War II reenactment, of sorts.

Home Schooling Takes You Places

Skye is taking a Swing Dance class with some local (Atlanta) home school types and her teacher was performing at this WWII reenactment.

So after waking up bright and early to get to the farmers market and then running around Atlanta for around 5 hours, we headed out to the dance.

Her teacher went on just shy of 11 o'clock.

Needless to say on our drive home there were a couple of sleepy "soldiers".

Into the Great Beyond

It's just creeping past 6:20 am and all we have on the menu today is a matinee of the Three Stooges; Cindy worked on it and Skye loves the Stooges, the original ones that is, we'll see what she thinks of the Farley Brothers' update. And then a re-invention of Riding Hood over at the Goat Farm, Rua | Wülf.

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Another Action Packed Weekend

Lakers A Go Go

Fight For Air Atlanta-2012

Two Tales Retold

Sweetwater 420 Fest--3rd Time's a Charm

Great Urban Race- Atlanta 2012

Running the Sweetwater 420 5k and Out of a Haze

All Over The Map

Where DOES the Time Go? Where Did I Go?

Time-The One Thing Money Can't Buy....Sort Of

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