i say "um".

booyah!

im currently sitting in the philly international airport waiting to board my flight home.  there are a few problems with this and a few good things about it.  the good thing is that im gunna be home for a few more days and fly out to L.A. this sunday.  they cut me early because i no longer needed to be there hanging around.  i got everything i needed to know and they said i am all set and ready for L.A.   that means confidence... IN ME!  it was definitely great to hear.  the few bad things about this is that it is 2:37pm and i am waiting for my plane that is scheduled to board at 6:06pm.  yeah, i'll be waiting here for four hours.  but wait, there's more!  when i checked in the "checker-inner-guy" said the flight is running an hour behind!  WOOHOO!  so here i am, for five hours, waiting for my rocket to come.  (jason mraz reference there)  at least i'll have plenty of time to finish all my invoicing and get some notes together for L.A.  please feel free to call me if you'd like, i could use the conversation!  :)  take care everyone

finally a breather

we got a good jump on the day early this morning just like yesterday.  first i did a walk through and made sure all the equipment booted up okay.  secondly i ran the presentations on all five laptops to make sure they were flawless.  everything ran as planned.  today was a rehearsal for the show.  a "dummy" group walked through the entire presentation and it took about four hours.  we ate lunch and i got to sit with the lead audio engineer for this team and discuss his way of troubleshooting certain problems.  i took a ton of notes.

i feel MUCH more prepared now than i ever have.  i feel that i can now make my production flow smoothly.

i have not been sleeping very well for some reason and today it all finally caught up with me.  thank god we had a short day and were able to return to our hotel rooms at 4:30pm.  i decided to take a two hour nap.  it is now 12:39am tuesday morning and i am about to go to bed.

tomorrow i will be assisting the lead engineer during the show.  lets hope everything goes smoothly.

TRAVELING CALENDAR

If you would like to be able to see my traveling plans on my Google Calendar, please send me a message with your email address. (gmail addresses will work best, if you have one)

Have a great day everyone!  :)

Philly Day 2

6am came early this morning as I didn't sleep all that well last night.  i quickly decided to make some coffee to help wake me up.  hotel room coffee isn't anything to get excited about but i was relying on getting that little caffeine boost to get my day started.  

all i found was decaf... good morning to me.

skipping the brew, i decided to take a quick shower.  that did the trick.

we all met up in the lobby of the hotel and hopped in the rental cars to the convention center in King of Prussia, PA.  this place is huge.  the "drive team" quickly unloaded half of the semi trailer and started setting up the tents in the parking lot.  the semi then backed up to the Main Room of the convention center and my team unloaded the rest of the equipment in record time.  without a beat the guys had a great jump start on setting up all the screens and draping for the stage area.  i proceeded to assist the head technician of this Philly show by setting up the audio/visual equipment in the 3 break-out rooms.  everything looks fantastic and runs flawlessly.  it's great to take a step back at the end of the day and sigh knowing that you worked hard to make it happen.  the chevy volt is a fantastic car.  there are many neat features and some that i don't understand what in the world the designers were thinking.  like storing the charge cable under a panel in the floor of the trunk. 

imagine with me if you will...

you take a long trip with your spouse and two kids.  decide it's getting late and turn off the freeway to bunk down in a hotel for the night.  the hotel has designated "charge parking spaces" for your vehicle for another $30 a night.  you NEED to charge your vehicle so you have no choice but to pony up the dough.  you then proceed to remove the few items you need to stay overnight.  not all your baggage, just a few.  BUT WAIT!  you need to charge your car as well.  might as well unload the vehicle because the charge cable is stored under a large floor panel in the trunk.  not so, "easily accessible" if you ask me.   OH SURE!  if you don't travel with any luggage then you will be fine.

other than "little" issues like that the vehicle is pretty neat.

it is now time for me to go to bed.  tomorrow we will meet in the hotel lobby at 6:15am and head over to the convention center to meet with the clients (chevy personnel).  they will be given the complete tour and everything should go smoothly.  

i will be taking detailed notes on some areas of the set up so that i can easily mimic the set-up in Los Angeles.  

okay, time for bed.  see you all tomorrow.

p.s. i wanted to add a video in this blog however the internet connection im using decided otherwise.  i'll put it in the next blog if i can.

Philly Day 1

CHEVY VOLT TOUR

I decided to enjoy the 2 weeks prior to leaving for Philadelphia for the new job.  I had a fantastic time hanging out with a bunch of friends, going to a Tiger's game, bonfires, mountain biking and a whole bunch of other things.  I am going to miss all of that while I am away.  However I will be keeping you all up to date on what is happening while I am on the road... er in the air.  So hold on tight, cuz here we go!

BIG PHILLY STYLE!

I started my trip off just like every other excursion I've ever endeavored with last minute packing.  I literally took clothes out of the dryer, folded them, put them in the suitcase and walked out the door.  I forgot nail clippers.  It took me 35 minutes to drive to the airport and another 35 to check in, go through security and get to my gate.  I'm a pro at this traveling stuff.  We boarded the plane and waited.. and waited.  Ends up some of our baggage hadn't been loaded yet and the pilot kept apologizing over the PA.  "Sorry folks, this is not acceptable.  I would encourage you to send some emails to Delta voicing any frustration with the delay."  So that's what I am going to do.  Maybe I can get something out of it.  We finally took off and the flight was nice and problem free.  well.. almost.

The girl seated at my right was wearing long jean shorts and I quickly noticed her leg hairs were longer than mine.  This was gross.  Especially because plane seating is tight and I'm a big guy.

It was only a matter of time until our legs made contact in a 

FURRY FRICTIONY FRENZY.  

I landed and quickly made my way to the baggage claim to find my suitcase on the belt right then.  Perfect.  I was set to go.  Shuttle to the rental car place, drive off in a brand new Impala with Betsy.  Betsy is a very nice woman whom I'll be working with for a few days.  After a 45min drive we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in King of Prussia, PA.  This is a nice hotel.  I have my own suite with two large HD LCD tvs, couch, table, fridge, and two air conditioners.  I can get used to this.  The entire team is staying at the same hotel so it is easy to get to know everyone.  Everyone decided to go grab a quick bite, however the only place in walking distance was Hooters.  gross.  The food is NOT good and I'm not much for the..."scenery".  I ordered carry-out and spent the last couple hours in the hotel room getting settled in.

Tomorrow I will go to Wal-Mart and stock the fridge with healthy dinner and breakfast stuff. 

I have to be down in the hotel lobby at 6:45am to meet up with everyone and head to the production site.  My team will be unloading all the trucks and getting all of the gear opened and start setting up.  I will be assisting the head a/v tech for the next few days.  Pilot show is this Tuesday!


I will be updating my blog every night of my tour.

...bigger and better?

transitions.

transitions can be fantastic.  many times in life when we are going through transitions we are changing for the better.  we have decided to leave behind a certain people, place or lifestyle for our betterment.  maybe a relationship that has lost it's glitz and glamour or simply our daily regiment of: wake up, shower, shoes, breakfast, work, home, dinner, tv, sleep etc.

transitions can be terrifying at the same time.  as we walk out of that relationship we sometimes fear if we threw away something special.  as we change our daily regiment to: wake up, breakfast, workout, shower, shoes, work, home, workout, dinner, family time, sleep, we fear that we won't hold to it.

a few weeks ago i met up with an old friend.  we used to be best friends and played in Semper-Fi together.  we did the typical 'catching up' talk.  he asked what i did for work and if i was happy.  i responded with, "im..... content."  and he said, "that's not what i asked.  are you happy?"  so i obviously replied, "no."  he proceeded to tell me about a job opportunity that he had been offered and turned down.  explained a bit about it and asked if i were interested.  i asked him to get me more info.

the next day i got a call from a guy who wanted to explain the job offer to me.
two days later i went and visited the company and discussed some major details.
a week later i called and told him i would like to accept the job.

which puts me right smack dab in the middle of a major transition.  

a great opportunity? yes! but a frightening one at the same time.  

i am currently still working at my old job and spending random days at the new job going over different things.  this is very awkward and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone.  i wanted to give my old job as much time as possible to train and fill my position.  plus i would like to keep making money until i can start working at the new job full time in July.

the new job will be exciting.  i am very psyched about it.  i will be flying around the continental U.S. as the head a/v technician for Jackson-Dawson.  they put on events/shows for different things.  my first tour will be informative presentations for the Chevy Volt.  i will be traveling with 8-10 individuals and making these events happen flawlessly.  my new bosses are very nice and seem to have a good amount of common sense. (something my old boss seemed to lack greatly)  i have a feeling i could get used to this.

however, i still have my doubts.

what if things don't work out for some reason?  i mean, there are always chances for something to happen, right?  what if i don't "cut it"?  what if i do very well and the person above me feels threatened and wants to cut me loose?  what if i crash in a plane?  (this seriously crossed my mind)  i will be flying to three different places a month.  philly, l.a., phoenix, denver, minneapolis....

i've never been the risk taker in life for fear that shit will go sour and i'll be known as the guy who screwed up royally.  

i was watching a movie the other day and a few lines in the dialogue really jumped out at me.  the lead character was always known as a smart guy who graduated M.I.T. and was working at a movie rental store.  he never knew what he wanted to do for fear he would screw up.  he had a break-down moment while talking to his father and said, "im sorry... im sorry, im your only son... the failure!"  and his dad said, "no son, you aren't a failure at all.  because to be a failure you have to make an attempt at something.  but you haven't even done that.  you aren't even a failure... you're... worse than that."  putting aside the satire, this scene really hit me... hard.  

i can't even be a failure unless i try.

so im.......  a nothing.

this transition is me taking a step.  even if it is the wrong one in the end.  

at least im stepping toward something.