A friend asked me this morning the very simple and usual question: “How was your weekend?”
I had to pause because, if I gave it a score, it was an average weekend. However, it was only average because the highs and lows were equally off the scale. The highs were really rewarding, and the lows really sucked. So, without further adieu, let’s run this in chronological order –
Friday: I was invited down to the very scenic Wilmington, North Carolina for a weekend event with Rock Your Life founder Chris Poorten. Chris and I have partnered together before in our nutrition and supplementation businesses and he’s been a great friend for several years now. The event was a very out-of-the-box event. We were going to take some interested people out for kayaking and then to share information about our foods, vitamins, and the business. Pretty cool, right? I drove down from Northern VA, taking about 5 1/2 hours of smooth sailing. The drive is very peaceful, and I got to listen to a wide variety of my SiriusXM Radio favorites. However, sticking to the theme of this post, it was not without hiccups. I had to stop and do a presentation from a Wawa parking lot for my day job, which ran long and kept me off the road. Then, I arrived at my hotel and within ten minutes, a monster thunderstorm swept through. It killed my chance to hit one of the local restaurants I had heard about, and royally screwed up the satellite feed in the hotel, so I missed my indulgence of Syfy Channel’s Friday lineup.
Friday Highs: Nice drive, good programming, looking forward to seeing friends
Friday Lows: Storms, unusual day job duties, rained out of dinner and science fiction
Saturday: Oh, Friday was totally calm compared to the rest of the weekend. We had scheduled kayaking for 10 am. I arrived at the Marina only to find the boat slip taped off with crime scene tape, and four Sheriff’s cars parked right between me and the kayak shed. The attendant on duty was very hush-hush and wouldn’t discuss what was going on. His older counterpart was much more open, sharing that we shouldn’t go near the tape unless we wanted to “see a stiff.” Turns out, a body was discovered by two fishermen earlier that morning and they were waiting for the crime scene unit. (Read the local news team article here.) So, the Weekend at Bernie’s jokes started right away. After about two hours, we were able to get out on the water, enjoy the kayaking, make new friends and talk nutrition. It was a great time, followed by a quiet ride back home.
Saturday night was supposed to be jokingly “eventful” because our local baseball team, the Potomac Nationals, were hosting Goonies night with actor/rocker/child star, Corey Feldman. Our buddy, Jeremy, who is the P.A. guy for the P-Nats, asked to borrow a couple of boom stands. So, we were going to have our band’s mic stands used by one of the original Goonies. It was cool in a nostalgia kind of way. Of course, Feldman’s guitar player quit this week, so the band wound up not playing. No Goonies connection.
(Side note: Just Wanna Play, my cover band, will be performing before the P-Nats game on Saturday, August 15th. It’s Military Appreciation Night, including food trucks, Camo shirt giveaways, and an appearance by the one and only former pro wrestler, Sgt. Slaughter.)
Saturday Highs: kayaking, friends, and drive time
Saturday Lows: dead guy in the river, no Goonies after all
Sunday: Here comes the fun one. As part of our local nonprofit authors’ group, Write by the Rails, I’m part of the group working on the Little Free Libraries project. The project is designed to promote literacy and reading enthusiasm by building and installing small libraries in various parts of the county. We have the first few commissioned, and on Sunday, we were supposed to complete building the flagship library. As it turns out, this thing is pretty massive – a schoolhouse that is going to house several books and it is set to be unveiled this Saturday, August 8th at The New School in Old Town Manassas, VA. My friend and neighbor, Dave, worked really hard for five hours on this library with me while others like Stacia, Belinda & Gary Miller, and Dan Verner did additional work. Naturally, working on all this, I jacked up my back and wound up miserable all night Sunday. Off to the chiropractor today. But, the library is coming right along.
Sunday Highs: Great project for a great cause (with great company)
Sunday Lows: Oww, my achin’ back!
So, overall, I think everything evened out.
One Love,
nK
Update: I totally forgot to add the picture of the cat’s impromptu redecorating of our office. Bane, our 24 lb. Egyptian Mau, decided to jump up on my side of the closet, with predictable and disastrous results. Enjoy:
