Long Drive Home

Sunday January 6th, 2008 - Pittsburgh, PA/Lake Villa, IL

612 miles is a long way to drive home from work. I got up at 6am Central Time and was packed and on the road by 6:15. I was thinking about driving last night but decided against it very quickly because of the large amount of drunks coming out of the Steelers game that ended late. I got stuck in the traffic on the way back to the hotel and it was a giant mess.

It must have taken 45 minutes to go five miles from the club to the hotel. There were all kinds of delays because nobody knew how to merge and I thought there were going to be quite a number of people going at it with fists. It was ugly and scary but especially for me. I am not from here and don’t know the ins and outs and backroads like most of these guys do. There were all kinds of abrupt lane changes and horns blasting and I was very nervous.

I wasn’t drunk but most of those people were. If I were to get crunched by a carload of juiced up steelworkers there’s no way they’d stop and give me their phone number like the driver’s manual says. I was thrilled to get out of that traffic jam with my bumpers intact so when I got to the hotel I didn’t push my luck. I crawled into bed to get some needed rest.

These long drives are getting very old. I’ve made so many of them that the thrill is gone and I never thought I’d say that. I used to love taking cross country drives because I could get a chance to see new places I’ve never been before. I’ve been everywhere now and I’m really not in any hurry to go back to Wheeling, WV. I was there today and it’s no big deal.

The weather was great all the way back and that was a big plus. It was really warm and I had the window down much of the way trying to blow the cobwebs out of my brain pipe. I used the car as a mobile office and tried to get some work done to be productive. I had my tape series on starting a business by Brian Tracy and was able to finish all six cassettes. I’ll listen to it again too because there are a lot of helpful tips on it. I’m glad I brought it along and if I’m going to be in the car anyway I might as well do something that helps me learn.

I also took a few hours to plan out my products I want to create. I came up with a lot of ideas and wrote them down but now I have to make them happen. NOT easy and I know I won’t be able to get to all of them but I wrote them all down anyway. If I can pull off half of what I wrote down I’m going to be busy for quite a few months. That’s ok. I live for it.

It’s time to reconnect with my bookers list too. Even if I am planning to go into the mail order business I still need to earn a living and need to stay in touch and get some bookings to pay my bills. I made a list of those I haven’t contacted in a while and it’s about 40-50. I should really update my bio and get new pictures taken and send them out to each of them but I’m not ready to do that yet. If I change pictures now I need to be the King of Uranus.

That’s not a finished product yet so I can’t do that. I can send an email or call them for a booking in ‘08 or just to send my avails. My booking schedule looks good through March so it’s not an emergency but it’s smart to not let it get to that point. I’ve got a lot of things to do and it’s only the 6th of January. So much for my day off. Back to work tomorrow.