When I close my eyes, I can swear I hear Patsy Cline’s singing.
Every now & then I post about my schedule, and people claim that they wish that they had my energy, or that they don’t understand how I do everything I do. Then there are spells like what I’m going through.
This weekend is July 4th weekend . . . which, while it’s normally a time of relaxation, is the weekend of Landslide’s (my band) biggest gig ever. We’re playing the Gettysburg Battlefield Resort, a large campground, and the campground closest to the Gettysburg battlefield. And it’s re-enactment weekend, so the campground is booked. Naturally, we’re super-excited for this – but excitement generally doesn’t lead to relaxation.
Next weekend is the Carlisle Theater Production of All Shook Up, where I’m playing bass in the pit. Seeing as the week leading up to the show has Independence Day in it, tech week is actually spanning two weeks. My schedule this week has been and will be:
- Monday
-
- Work from 6am – 4pm (working out for an hour over lunch)
- Drive to get my keyboard from the rhythm guitarist’s house because they’re using it in the show until 6:45
- Dinner & bathtime with the kids until 9pm
- Conference calls & work until 11:30pm1
- Sleep
- Tuesday
-
- Work from 7am – 4pm (working out for an hour over lunch)
- Home for dinner, laundry-folding & kid time
- Sing-through with the cast until 9pm
- Conference calls & work until 11:00
- Sleep
- Wednesday
-
- Work out from 6am-7am
- Work from 7am – 5:30pm (with Duffy bringing the kids by for lunch)
- Band practice until 8:30
- Conference calls & work until 10:30pm
- Sleep
- Thursday
-
- Work from 7am – 5:30pm (no work out because I chose to sleep in and I had to schedule a meeting through lunch)
- All Shook Up rehearsal from 6:30 until whenever
- Work
- Sleep
- Friday
-
- Wake up at 4:302
- Work from 7am-2pm (no lunch work out, but lunch with my wife at the library where she works)
- Offsite work meeting from 2pm – 5pm (rumor has it we’re bowling
- All Shook Up rehearsal from 6:30 until whenever
- Sleep (yay, no work on a Friday night)
- Saturday
-
- All Shook Up rehearsal from 10am – 1pm
- Sound check with Landslide from 3:30 – 5pm
- Gig with Landslide from 5:30 – 10:30pm
- Strike the gig – hopefully home by 1am
- Sleep
- Sundsay
- Ride my bike sometime in the morning. hoping for 60 miles3
- Head to my sister’s to take a look at her computer
- Actually spend some time with my children
- Sleep
- Monday (Independence Day)
-
- Rid my bike sometime in the morning, hoping for 75 miles
- Attend a BBQ somewhere (even if my diet means I might only eat macaroni & cheese, deviled eggs, and potato salad
- Actually spend a bit of time with my children
- Sleep
- Tuesday & Wednesday
-
- Work from 7am-4pm, working out before work and/or over lunch
- All Shook Up Rehearsal from 6pm – whenever
- Work until done (hopefully 11pm)
- Sleep
- Thursday & Friday
-
- Work from 7am-4pm, working out before work and/or over lunch
- All Shook Up performance from 7:30 – 10:30
- Work
- Sleep
- Saturday
-
- Run or bike in the morning
- Matinee for All Shook Up at 2pm
- Evening performance for All Shook Up from 7:30-10:30pm
- Think about helping to strike the set. Instead, head out for a drink with the other members of the pit
- Sleep
- Sunday
-
- Nothing. Glorious nothing.
I’m already tired . . . and I keep telling myself that I signed up for it all. So, while mu posting has been sporadic a bit lately, I have no idea what I’ll be posting in the near future.
On top of all of this, I need to get my ass in gear and find a psychologist because . . . well, that hearing Patsy Cline every time I close my eyes is a little disconcerting. When my life even gets the tiniest bit off-kilter, bad things go through my head, and I need to find some way to even things out. Sometimes, like now, I try to make myself so busy that I can’t do anything outside of “survive” from day-to-day, and that works. I do what I need to do, and my mind is so tired that I can’t think about much.
But, as soon as the crazy busy stops . . . well, my brain doesn’t slow down at all. I need a little assistance to help guide the thoughts that pop up.
1 I manage two distinct workforces in Manila in the Philippines – so I have nightly tasks managing their work effort
2 I always wake up at 4:30 and make a very quick decision to take the dogs for a walk right then, or to try to sleep for another hour. I almost never make it back to sleep, but lately I’ve been choosing the “back to bed” option more & more. If I can actually get out of bed and walk the dogs, it means I’ll be able to run or swim in the morning . . . things I should be doing more, but things that I barely have the energy to think of, lately.
3 I am riding the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) the last week of July . . . yes, I’m considering biking 490 miles over 7 days “vacation,” but I need to get my legs into regular riding shape
Duffy must really love you because I’d seriously want to kick your ass.
You are my favorite person.
Good luck! Lord knows I have spent many weeks of my life with my schedule looking as booked as yours. And it sucks. Best idea? Make sure that in your scheduling of everything you reward yourself occasionally, just like you would on a diet. I see you’re making time for your family & for working out – both things you clearly love – but carve in a little time for JUST you. A little reading time, or maybe even a nap! xo
Right now, my issue is that some of these things are the “me time” I have scheduled for me (because that’s all I have), and that leads the need for professional intervention to the forefront . . . after this next week, I’ll get back to finding some regular “me time.”
I give you a lot of credit. I couldn’t even READ all of that. But I have to give you a lot of credit for inventive use of your time – most people aren’t so flexible. It’s usually their kids that suffer for it.
A day or two a week without the kids is really, really difficult . . . if I ever had to make the choice of regular time away from the kids and giving up something else, it’d be the something else.
That made my eyes blur and my head spin. And you’re right — make that appointment. When you can’t turn your brain off at the end of the day you need to ‘reset’ it. And hey, at least it’s an incredible voice, right? It could be Fran Dreshers voice.
I got hung up on laundry-folding. You fold laundry?
Are you *real?*
I promise I am real . . . I don’t *enjoy* folding laundry, but when it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Not doing it because I can ignore the need seems like it’s just the start of “bad things.”
I’d say you’re a better man than I, but that goes without saying.
I’m so excited for Landslide’s performance.
You know I love Gettysburg.
So jealous! Enjoy, good luck,
…and maybe catch a nap…1
The gig went very, very well – lots and lots of fun. And, though it was dark out, and we were in the light, and therefore we couldn’t really see, it appeared that we had a pretty good crowd.
You’re just trying to make us all jealous of your wife out here.
Well, guess what?
It worked.
I wasn’t actually trying to make people jealous of my wife (though you’re the second to say it), I was really afraid of a more Poppy-like backlash where people would gang up on me for not spending more time at home.