Where the Sidewalk Begins ...

Sleepless in Cincinnati

I haven't slept in 48 hours.  Actually, that's overstating it. I grabbed about 90 minutes this morning and around 90 minutes yesterday morning.
Why? Well, through no fault of my own (for once) I had a really super-tight deadline and was unable to even start the project until Tuesday morning. On top of that, I've been stressing about Parker's and our kids' ability to pull it together in time for the show next week. Plus, Steven has been being difficult in the ways that only 17-year-old guys can be difficult (and there are countless ways). Put it all together and I'm really stressed out.
When I'm really stressed out, no matter how tired my body is, my mind starts running like a trapped pinball. So when I lie down to sleep, I can't shut my mind off. It started on Sunday night. Monday night I took a sleeping aid and that made the morning rather hellish. Tuesday I ended not sleeping. Last night, when I felt it happening again around 2:30 am, I tried to counter it with a huge cup of hot chocolate spiced up with some Bailey's. I also popped in a Tivo'd episode of Law and Order, which always makes me sleepy. It worked. By 4-ish I was sleepy and headed upstairs. Then the power went out.  When our power goes out, our computer backup systems beep incessantly and loudly to let us know. We had to deal with that - in the complete darkness. Our power rarely goes out because we have underground utilities. This is the first time it has happened since we returned from Jamaica. Much to my surprise, I had a panic attack this morning. I was freaked out by losing power. See what being stuck in a hurricane does to your psyche? I now directly relate a small power outage to big natural disasters. 
The power came back on around 6:30 am.  Thank goodness.
I finished up my files I was creating last night and mailed them off to the client - right on time for the deadline. Hopefully they won't have any changes and I can spend the afternoon curled up, sound asleep, before heading off to Parker's tonite.

Catching up ...

Actually, I'll never catch up. I'm terribly far behind on everyone's blogs - my own included! Here are a couple of happenings:

Due to a past history of dental issues and being hammered in the jaw while spotting a swing stunt (pushed my jaw over the edge, you could say), I have TMD. My dentist (a children's dentist who is cool and not scary) has decided to treat it with bite therapy first. This means I'm basically wearing almost invisible retainers - one for day and one for night. If these retainers mean that I will no longer have headaches (which have been incessant since I was nailed in the jaw last week), won't clench my jaw, and can avoid jaw-breaking surgery, I'm all for it. Bring on the retainers - I pick them up next Thursday.

We have planned out our trip to Niagara Falls, the Finger Lakes, and Rochester (to visit Kevin's godfather). I have every intention of visiting Bully Hill. There's a special place in my heart for a winery that has a bottle called "Love My Goat." That's happening at the end of May. The other traveling has stopped for a while - thank goodness. It's very annoying to travel that much to that many places in a 3-week period. I need to stay in one place until we head to New York.

My business is so damned busy I'm going to start inquiring at local colleges (most definitely Thomas More, maybe NKU) about hiring seniors or, preferably, grad students (cheap labor) as subcontractors. I have to also talk to my accountant about how to go about this, but it's got to be done. If I keep getting work at the rate things have been going, there's just no way I can do it all by myself. Any new client after May will probably get one of my "employees."  I'll review everything and handle the billing, but that's it. In the meantime, I'm positively swamped with the clients who require just me.  I have way too many projects all due at the exact same time - again.

Parker's is in 2 weeks (Derby weekend - May 6 & 7). I hope our kids are ready. Getting them to buckle down and work has been next to impossible. They just don't get it. Next week we run all of Act II on Tuesday night. I keep telling them that it is our first performance - they're performing for all of the other students in Act II. I guess we'll see how that goes. We're having an optional but encouraged practice on Sunday (yep, Sunday, when I really should be working). They have got to get this stuff down. It's a harder routine than last year, but they can do it, they just need to concentrate. Kate deals with this stuff better than I do - I'm stressed out.

Oh, and many congrats to John, who just bought his first house. You'll love owning a home, even though it feels like the work is never done (yard work, old things breaking, remodeling, repainting), it's very much worth it to have your own place. Make sure you get a home owner's warranty though. That thing has really saved us with our 30-yr old plumbing, among other things. Congrats!

I think that's everything that's going on. I'm sure I missed something.

I have to work now -

On the road again ...

It should stop soon - all the business travel, that is. Got back from Indianapolis last night (again - very tired of Indiana) and am heading to Dayton today.  Tonite I have to be home in time to head to Parker's. We're wrapping up stunts. I got beaned in the head on Tuesday night, trying to spot a girl in a flip. My head is still throbbing. I talked with the client who has me traveling and they've agreed that I'll not be doing any more road training until May. That works MUCH better for me.
Also, its Spring.  I know this because I woke up with a cold. That means Spring is definitely here. Of course, the cold could also be because my defenses are down. Why are my defenses down? Because I'm incredibly stressed out - I have two clients who need things NOW. I'm a little better since I put the other client on hold until May, but still stressed. Especially since I start yet another project in May. Kevin thinks I need to learn how to say No, or Not right Now.  But I can't. Mainly, I have a fear that if I say No to one, I'll hit a run of bad luck and regret it by ending up with 0 billable hours. Then I have guilt for not bringing in any salary. So instead I run myself until there are no hours left in the day, then I keep going. Then I get sick.  Stupid vicious circle.

On a happier note, the next time we travel personally is the end of May, when we're heading to Niagara, the Finger Lakes, and Rochester to visit Kevin's uncle Steve. Oh wait - we're heading to Lexington tomorrow for the races. This weekend we also have Little Shop of Horrors and Steven's play. It's a busy weekend, as usual!

Disney-MGM Photos Posted!

The photos from this past weekend are up on the site. There are around 200 photos! Enjoy!

A1A Photos

I cruised down A1A with the top down a couple weeks ago when I was in Boca Raton for business.  The photos are amusing and are in my Typepad photo album here.
BTW, A1A is also the name of a Jimmy Buffet album.  It's my favorite road in the world, and I think Jimmy shares the same favorite.

Home again

Got home last night from the Conference and our mini-break.  The conference was great - I made some great contacts and got some great ideas. I'm glad the client sent me.
The mini-break at MGM was a lot of fun, but absolutely exhausting. I fully understand why, when I was little, my family would spend 3 days at Disney and then 4 more days in Daytona. Disney is a lot of fun, but its very tiring. I can't imagine doing it with kids!
Hopefully I'll have a minute to post photos and such, but I'm swamped all week again and in Indianapolis to run some training sessions this week as well. And yeah - that means I'm going BACK to Indiana in a car.  So tired of Indiana and its highways ...

Livin' out of a suitcase

After the lovely services for Aunt Pat in Northern Indiana and south side Chicago on Friday, we headed to Southern Indiana to my Grandma's house in Washington. It was her 80th birthday. We made it home on Sunday evening. Now we're busy with work (lots of work), cleaning, laundry, Parker's and re-packing. I leave again Wednesday morning for the Conference in Orlando. Kevin joins me Friday and we'll spend the weekend at the Disney-MGM park.
It's a busy week!

Lentz-Gerl Travel Trivia:

We crossed the entire state of Indiana 3 ways between Thursday and Sunday last week. 
1. Diagonally from Cincinnati to Schererville (south of Chicago) on Thursday
2. North to South, from Schererville to Washington/Vincennes on Friday
3. West to East, from Washington to Cincinnati on Sunday

I've seen enough Indiana to last me a while.  It all looks the same!

Sin City

There's not much to do in Washington, IN.  So on Saturday we drove 20 miles to Vincennes to take in a movie. (Okay, there's one theatre in Washington with 2 screens - Guess Who? and Miss Congeniality 2 were playing.)  In Vincennes, we saw Sin City.
We haven't seen a movie on opening weekend in ages.  This was incredible.  It was dark and violent. But despite all the violence, there was an underlying message of hope.  Or at least of optimism and loyalty. I've never read the graphic novels (although I will now), so I was starting with a clean mental slate.  I found the characters very emotional, albeit twisted. I was unimpressed with Jessica Alba, Brittany Murphy, and Alexis Bleidel.  It was very hard for me to believe that Alexis was anything but Rory from the Gilmore Girls. For me, she never did anything to make me believe she wasn't Rory playing dress-up. Jessica Alba can't really act. Brittany Murphy was Okay, but not great.  Rosario Dawson could have been so much more but perhaps wasn't given the opportunity and did well with what she had to work with.
I was thrilled with Bruce Willis and Clive Owen. For me, Bruce can do very little wrong.  I adore him and his story was heartbreaking. Clive was great.  But much to my surprise, Mickey Rourke as Marv simply stole the show. He anchored the movie, which is amazing since the movie is a series of three vignettes.
Sin City just goes to show that heros have to do a lot of very bad things, but their hearts remain true to themselves and those they love.  Sin City redefines our idea of a hero.

RIP, John Paul II

I do not agree with the majority of the tenets of Catholicism. I often state that I'm a "recovering Catholic." That said, I am saddened by the loss of John Paul II.  The Pope was a symbol of peace. He was the first Pope to ever enter a Muslim mosque. He was the most well-traveled of the popes, reaching out to the masses on a global scale.
The world will mourn the loss of a great man who left behind a powerful legacy.