Freedom

OK, I weaved yesterday. I'm going to go for a run in a few minutes. I think I finally have my life back.

Over the last month, I've opened an ice cream store, handled a marketing campaign launch for Ford, traveled to Miami for a press event, helped the kids get ready for the new school year, dealt with a myriad of bridge issues, threw a two-day Crain executive meeting and placed 900 people in 55 houses for the Crain House Party. Oh, and did I mention that I decided to shut my company and take a real job. I also debated between three job options during the last month and finally took the leap and decided to rejoin Crain as director of corporate communications.

It has been a wild August/September. I've been up late, waking up early and essentially going nuts. Talk about stress.

Here's to the changes Fall brings! I even got the computer running again yesterday. That's a sure sign that things are going to work out great.

Boycott Marriott!

OK, I've worked in hotels. I know sometimes they're oversold. I know all the right things to say. Then why was I walked?

I am writing from an uncomfortable bench in Philadelphia Airport at 2:25 a.m. (The airport terminal doesn't open again until 4:30 a.m.) In my quest to squeeze way too much into my world, I left my Ford event in Miami at 8, got on a 10 p.m. flight to Philadelphia with a connector to Detroit at 6:15 a.m. (My Bridge clients have an important meeting with a local paper on Wednesday at 11:30 so I have to get home!)

The plan was to get into Philly at 11:30 and get a few hours of shuteye in the Airport Marriott before the morning flight. I had a confirmed reservation at a way too high price guaranteed with a credit card. I get to the desk and this little tart says I've been moved to the Downtown property and the shuttle will be right here to come take me. UGH! I was only going to be there for four or five hours. I didn't want to go downtown. I used my best Ritz Carlton tactics but she wouldn't budge. I showed her my Rewards card. I revealed my receipt from the Marriott I stayed in in Miami last night. I flashed my printed confirmation. I told her about the meetings I plan. Nothing worked. The kicker was that people around me in line were getting rooms. She told me they were "pre-checked in." Such BS.

I'm running on about three hours of sleep from yesterday. (I got into Miami at 2 a.m. last night.) So before I started to cry (I was close), I asked for the courtesy of a key to the fitness center so I could at least take a shower. I got the phone number for complaints and she gave me some dumb ass $100 gift certificate. Just wait....Marriott is going to give me more than that before I'm done.

Thanks for letting me rant and rave and wish me luck tomorrow working all day on no sleep. (Coincidentally, I have a 2 p.m. meeting tomorrow at the Westin at the Detroit Airport for a meeting I'm planning for Crain. I wish it was a Marriott so I could cancel it!!)

Happy Labor Day

Our home computer has been in the shop since August 4. The old HP is supposed to be back sometime this weekend with a new hard drive (it had to take a trip to Cleveland, the hard drive capital of the world, to get its new guts). So for the last three weeks, the whole family has used my work laptop at night to check email so blogging has been back burner.

Ro and Jackson are Up North (again!) salmon fishing with the Emme male clan. They were there last weekend too. Man, are they loving that boat.

I think Robar PR is going on the shelf. Since we were told China was out of the picture, I've come to the realization that I like having a one person firm but I am way, way maxed out on billable hours that I can do myself. I can't take a vacation or even meet a friend for lunch. So to grow the firm, I would have to hire a staff. I really don't want to be responsible for staff and all the responsibility that entails. So, I think it is time to go back to the agency life. I am very fortunate to have offers from both Mullen and Team Detroit so I'm debating this weekend. Both are very different. It's probably a good thing Ro is out of town cuz I'm kind of distracted.

Speaking of distracted, I blew through a pink light this morning on Jefferson right in front of three police cars that were there for the Belle Isle Grand Prix. After I cussed, I let out a "Lord, help me" and it worked. The cop pulled up next to me, asked me to roll down my window and told me "show some respect for the city and its residents" and left. God is good.

Cheers!

Drip, drip

I like rainy days.

Cow Tipping

I spent last weekend organizing the Grand Opening for an ice cream store in Royal Oak. What craziness...magicians, clowns, balloons, prizes, 30 foot inflatable cows, milk mustache photos, cow milking machines, six kids (including Hannah and Jackson) dressed as cows and carnival games. You name it...we did it. I even put my Mom to work on Saturday. The corporate office gave away free ice cream cones for three hours on Sunday. I had the hard job of telling people in line that it ended at 4:00. Man, you'd think that we were giving away gold.

I started at Crain on Monday. So now I'm at the Bridge all morning, Crain all afternoon and squeezing in my other clients when I can (mostly at night). I've got some good interviews set up for Crain so I'm hoping I'll be done there by the end of September. Interesting wrinkle in my world......I had a chat with the head of PR at Mullen in Boston. She offered me a Senior VP job to come back and run Detroit PR. It would be some GM advanced tech work and then some new business. I can essentially name my price. I'm thinking.....

Jackson finished his driver's ed class on Thursday. Now as soon as we can get him over to the Secretary of State office, he'll have his permit. He'll drive with us for 30 hours and then take a second class. He is really excited.

This is a big week for celebrations. Ro and I celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary on Wednesday, my birthday is Saturday and my Dad turns 70 on the 29th. Now if I could only find the perfect gifts.....or the time to shop for them!

Inspiration

Hannah and I went to the Detroit Urban Craft Fair at the Majestic Theater yesterday. At first, Hannah let out a "I'm thirteen and I wouldn't be caught dead at a craft fair" groan. I convinced her this would be different and I was so right. Imagine all of one city's liberal artists with funky haircuts and mod clothing in one room at the same time. (For example, the volunteers wore capes and the room had a bar set up!) No wooden cutout crap here. Everything was original with an edge. I acquired a new purse and some homespun yarn for weaving. She bought a bracelet and a doo-hickey for her hair. We also found a perfect sock monkey baby outfit for a shower we're going to next week. Big fun. Rather than doing client work that needed doing last night, I finally got back to my loom and did some weaving. Felt great!

Dilemma

Working from project to project has been my MO since I went out on my own two years ago. So far, it has been a pretty good strategy.

I've been working really hard on the Ambassador Bridge Enhancement Project for Ogilvy since April. I know our role is only a temporary one....once they get their permits they probably won't need a PR/ad agency any longer. At best, we thought it would last until the end of the year. It's been a big challenge....everyone hates the owner, lots of government intrigue, way too many lawyers, a client who has never done PR, etc. I've gotten them some pretty good coverage over the past few months. I'm at the Bridge every morning (their request).

Here's the problem...I got a call from Crain's last week. Bridget (who I hired 10 years ago) is leaving for another job. Keith asked if I could help out for the next month or so until they hire a new corporate communications director. I explained that I am at the Bridge in the AM and they said they'd be fine if I just worked 20 hours a week in the afternoons. I like the people at Crain's a lot and I'd like to help them out.

So, if I am at the Bridge in the AM and at Crain's in the PM, I'll be taking care of my other clients (mostly Ford and JWT) during the night shift and I will never be in the office. The last time I filled in at Crain's (at CDB), it took them three months to find a new person.

We have a big meeting with the Bridge on Wednesday. Maybe they'll fire us and it'll solve all my problems!

Computer-Less

We had a great time in Toronto. It was the annual "girl trip" and it was just what I needed. Good R&R and lots of fun with my Mom and Hannah. We took the train, saw a play featuring the music of Queen, witnessed 20 foot girl/guys in pink feathers on stilts, shopped a lot, went antiquing. got my toes painted a pretty pink (Hannah went for the teen green on her nails), stayed in a very hip hotel, ate great food and just relaxed. Perfect.

Hannah and I returned from Toronto yesterday to a bunch of goofy text on the computer. Should have known not to leave the guys alone with the technology. Usually, I can run the PC recovery program and fix her up....but not this time. I think it is a job for the Geek Squad. Hope they can get it recovered.

If you get a chance, check out my brother's blog, Molson Bike Tour (link is on the right). He jumped out of a plane over the weekend. So unbelievable!

Impatient!

I am feeling impatiently anxious about a bunch of stuff today:

1. I worked really hard on a pitch for Ford Sync. Presentation was last week. I was one of three agencies they had present. They were supposed to have a decision by Tuesday. Still no word today....the meeting keeps getting postponed. We assembled an awesome team with great energy and fun ideas. Hurry up, would you!

2. My friend Sara caught me on a weak moment and I agreed to help this way-over-their-head young couple with the grand opening of their ice cream and dairy store in Royal Oak August 10-12. My fee: lifetime ice cream cones! I can easily pull it together for them but I don't want a lot of drama. Let me get you the big cow display balloon, the magicians and the milk mustache photo man and be done. (It really is fun...but I have way more than a full schedule.)

3. We had two great editorial briefings this week with the Bridge...one with Crain's and another with the Detroit News. My clients don't get what a coup this is! I'm kind of anxious about the stories.

4. I hauled all the way out to Howell yesterday for a SECOND meeting with a potential client and their response to my PR ideas was along the lines of "we're not sure we want to tell people what we're doing." AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Get me out of here.

5. Happily, I'm going to Toronto for the "girl trip" on Saturday with my Mom and Hannah. We have a hotel, train tickets and mezzanine seats for the Queen "We Will Rock You" play. Everything else will happen if it feels right. Hope it goes well and my clients leave me alone.

Co-inky-dink

OK, I am becoming more and more convinced that all aspects of "Six Degrees of Separation" are converging this week. I was up on the Ambassador Bridge yesterday (awesome day...we got some incredible footage) with a film crew and find out that the cameraman Ed knew my brother Tim really well and roomed in college with a whole bunch of his buddies from Milford. He had even been to our cottage in Kingsville and had seen a baseball game with my Dad.

Ro and Jackson are Up North fishing this week with Rick, Kurtis, Tyler and Trevor. The annual guy trip is a highlight of their world. Lori and I (the fishing widows) had a great dinner last night in Ferndale to toast their annual trip.

Today, after Hannah's game (they lost!), we went out to dinner with my folks since they had tickets to a concert at the Fox. On the way back through downtown, who do we see on a side street....my brother Tim and his friend on their way to Tiger Stadium! What's the likelihood of that happening? Huge city and we find my brother! They didn't even have tickets...they were just going for standing room since it was such a nice night.

I have the new Harry Potter book and I'm going to try now and wrestle it away from Hannah. I have to admit, I peeked at the last chapter. I'm not sure yet who Rowling picked to die....but I know who was still alive at the end. Wish me luck getting the book away from Hannah.

New Business

Sorry no posts lately. I have a new business pitch tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11:30. Think good thoughts!

Kicking It

My pal, Corinne, is something else. I just read her blog (Curly's World--link is on the right) and discovered that she is doing a triathalon this weekend. I am so not worthy. This is a woman who after her husband died needed a change of scenery so she packed up her two young kids in her Jeep Liberty and moved to the mountains, got there, found out she had breast cancer, beat that and has always been one of the wisest people I know. She has done an amazing job raising her kids while keeping sane amidst all her health issues. But hell, a triathalon! Can't you just go shopping and celebrate!?! Holey moley. Swimming, biking and running. You go, girl! (This is a picture of Corinne with the scarf I wove for her a few months back. )

Running

It is a mere 95 degrees here in the D at 9:00 at night. Damn it has been a sauna this summer. Hannah had a double header yesterday and Jackson had a game too. That trifecta was a lot of baseball in one day of hot, hot, hot! It didn't help that all three games were losses. Our old house has no air (just a few window units) so today Hannah and I headed for the movies after church. (The guys were fishing of course.) She wanted to see Transformers. It wasn't my kind of movie but what the heck... it was cool inside the theater. Also was fun to see good GM marketing for a change.

Jackson and I just got in from a run. Ugh....I sweat a lot normally. Now I am just gross. Jackson is in awesome shape from ROTC and baseball and I'm well...43. I think he just humors me by going along at my snail pace. I bought the Nike IPod sensor a few weeks back and it is a great motivator. There is a small sensor in my shoe and I plug another sensor into Hannah's nano Ipod. It keeps track of my pace, distance, calories and time. It also keeps a history of all your runs so you can track your improvement. There are even pre-recorded voices of celebrities that congratulate you when you achieve a personal best. Hard to believe that I used to play the IPod music just so I wouldn't hear myself breathe so hard.

Guitars

After throwing the Fourth of July BBQ for the Burns block on Wednesday and working all day on Thursday, you'd think I would be too tired to accept free tickets from my friend Miriam for the John Mayer concert that night.....but no! Last night, Hannah, Taylor and I ventured off to the Palace for the show. We really enjoyed it. Lots of blues, solos and very singable tunes. Hannah (a rookie guitar player) thought it was cool to see how many different guitars he played.

The most memorable part was when a huge fight broke out between two guys across the aisle. Beer was everywhere and they were swinging hard. The one dude was there with his kid!! Glad I could teach Hannah and Taylor about brawls. It was a John Mayer concert for God's sake, not some heavy metal show.

Facebook

I am so sneaky....Jackson started a Facebook account so I built a page too. Now I can keep tabs on all the antics that he and his pals talk about. So far, it is all pretty harmless. Interestingly though, a lot of my friends have Facebook accounts so it has been nice to catch up with them too. Man, the technology behind it rocks. As soon as I set up my page, it zoomed through my address book and told me all of my friends with pages. Eerie...but cool. I see why the teen set likes it.

Corn and Canadians

In the last seven days, I have to been to Tuscola, Chicago and across the Ambassador Bridge into Canada no less than 14 times. I've hung with cool relatives I haven't seen in decades; chatted it up with TV and radio crews, online trucking journals and irate Canadians; and sent my boy off to boot camp.

We took off on Friday for a seven-hour drive to Tuscola, Illinois for the Meece Family Reunion. My Grandpa Barney (my Mom's Dad) and his family grew up in this area so we went to Helen Marie and Rodney's farm for a get-together. So much corn! It was a wonderfully relaxing day with lots of chatter, good food and row after row of corn. We went to Sidell and saw the family home, visited the war memorial put up to honor my Grandpa's three brothers who served, climbed on some gigantic farm equipment, oohed and aahed at some amazing quilts and looked at lots of fun, old photos. My folks were there too. It was a surprisingly wonderful gathering. Lots of stories...I'm guessing at least half of them were true!

On Sunday, we went into Chicago and did the total opposite....urban. The four of us went to Millenium Park (oh so cool!) and had a great time hanging around the Windy City. I had a media event for the Bridge so I flew home Sunday night and Dan and the kids spent some more time in the city on Monday.

I helped with public forums for the Bridge on Monday and Tuesday night in Windsor so I was running crazy finishing the DVD and getting all the media invites and materials together. It amazes me the people who make it their life's work to fight a cause like the expansion of the Bridge. Don't they have jobs or families that are way more important??? They need to find something else to do. There were a lot of supporters at our event too which was nice to see for a change. Long 16 hour days!

Wednesday was the Freedom Festival fireworks and the Bridge threw a party at the Art Gallery of Windsor. Awesome location! I helped set up the party during the day....there was a huge storm that blew through a few hours before the event. I wouldn't have wanted to be the guy who made the decision that the weather would get nice in time for the 10:06 start. Sure enough...it turned out to be a beautiful night. I stayed at the party until about 9 and then dashed home to go over the Barrow's house to watch with friends on the River from the Detroit side.

Jackson left this morning for ROTC camp. It is so weird to see your baby dressed in camo with a bag over his shoulder. He'll be gone for six days to a camp in Alpena with his ROTC buddies from Cass and from schools from all over the state. Sure hope he doesn't sign anything. (Jackson's love of all things ROTC was one reason I was looking forward to moving to China!)

Does sex sell?

If someone you only slightly know asks you to review the first few chapters of her book and you agree to do it, how honest should you be? Joanne has an apartment next door to my office. I recognize her from when I used to throw parties for Crain at her restaurant. We wave, say hello, but not until the other day, have we had more than a passing conversation. She called out to me and said that she had written a book and needed some feedback on it. I asked her if she needed it edited. "Oh no, I've already had someone do that." Being the dope that I am, I said sure. I had helped my friend Amy promote her book on Mackinac Island and it was a lot of fun.

OK, so she gives me the typed text in the alley behind the building and off I go with this new project. She had told me the premise of the book was today's views on marriage and what women will do to get the "white dress." The chapters were fairly well-written , although a lot of editing still needed to be done so I began by marking up the grammatical errors. Anyway, a few paragraphs into it, the sex started. Of the 100 or so pages she gave me, I think 90% of them had some graphic explanations of this or that. I don't mind a good love story that gets steamy, but there wasn't a story anywhere in this. It was loosely based on the people in a restaurant but she didn't really spend anytime building characters. Most of the time it was all about quickies in the back room.

I saw her yesterday across the fence and let her know that I had finished her pages and that I was ready to give them back to her. She asked what I thought. I babbled a bit about character development, told her I had made notes on the pages and rushed off to my car. What do I tell her? I don't want to crush her dream. She's obviously spent a lot of time on this. On the other hand, I don't have a lot of extra time to help her develop a stronger book. Or am I just an old prude? I just want to give her the notebook back and be done with the whole thing. Ugh!

oldclayman

Hannah and I decided that the best present we could give Ro for Father's Day was to partake in this boating obsession that the men in our house have developed. So, Hannah and I sprung out (OK, were pushed out) of bed on Sunday and spent an hour or so with the guys on the boat. It was really nice. Hannah had to lector at church at 11 so we thought ahead and took two cars to the marina. The guys slowed down enough so we could get off and they headed back to do the manly man thing and fish. Jackson is holding their Father's Day lunch.

While we were on the boat, Hannah christened the boat with a name. They are going to call it oldclayman which is Ro's EBay sign in name. Seems appropriate since this is the first boat they've bought that 1) runs and 2) wasn't bought on EBay.

I know I should have cooked Ro a fabulous dinner...but they had fish for lunch and all....so we went to our favorite Indian restaurant, Gandhi, to mark the holiday. All in all an awesome day was had by all.

Pellet Pillow

I am going through withdrawal. For the last 10 years, I have slept with the same pillow (and 20 years with the same man!). I bought the pillow when we lived in Japan. It was 75% pillow and 25% plastic pellets. The pellets are little white plastic pieces like you would use as a spacer on a beaded necklace. Sounds weird but it is the dreamiest thing. Very huggable and positionable. I've looked everywhere for a replacement but haven't found it. Ro even asked a friend to bring another one back from Japan when he was on a business trip but it was filled with corn pellets, not plastic. It wasn't right.

Yesterday, when I was in the shower, Java, our crazy mutt, chewed it to smithereens. There were small white plastic pellets from one end of the bedroom to the other. It looked like it had snowed. I was racing to a meeting so I had to leave the disaster. Hannah called me totally freaked out at 10:30 when she rolled out of her summertime slumber . (I think she thought the dog did it on her watch!)

Now, how do I get to sleep? I used a regular pillow last night and it was horrible.

Salute to Kurtis

My pal Lori outdid herself with quite a bash yesterday. Hard to believe that her son Kurtis is a Milford High School graduate and is on way to Grand Valley. (This photo is from last New Year's Eve.) Lori and Rick threw an amazing party in their backyard to celebrate the occasion. There was a huge tent for seating..another two small ones for food, volleyball and a jousting/bouncy thing. It was great to see all of their family. So many memories of our own high school days with all of these people. It's hard to believe we were all Milford high school graduates in 1980 and 1981. It was definitely a deja vu day. Hannah freaked out one of Lori's aunts. Her response, "oh my God, it's Colleen."