Week 17 in the Books

We closed out our 17th week on the road Sunday in Edmonton. The highlight of the week for me was when one of the local stage hands stopped me in the hallway to tell how much he enjoyed the show and my performance. He had worked other productions of Annie here and felt compelled to tell me that I was the best "Warbucks" he had seen. I never know how to take these things as they are always a matter of opinion and based on many factors including how well we as performers treat them as stage hands. Regardless of all that it is very fulfilling to receive such compliments.

Later that week as I reflected on that I realized one reason I struggle on the road with my performance is that I believe I will never be "good enough." Every performance can be better. Every personal interview and personal encounter with fans and others can be better. I will never be a good enough performer or singer or father or husband or person. This drive for perfection while often serving me well by driving me to seek to always do and be better can also be a handicap. It makes it difficult to enjoy the applause, the accolades, and the camaraderie of tour. It also can get in the way of relationships at home with Cay and the girls and my parents and siblings and on and on and on. I hope by the time this leg of my life journey is over that I will be able to look back and truly say and believe "Job well done."

Sunday my throat started hurting. I thought it was just due to the dry cold of Edmonton. Monday I woke up with a full blown cold that was only made worse by the plane trip to Anchorage, Alaska. By the time we got off the plane in Anchorage my head was throbbing from congestion and my ear was clogged and ringing from a combination of the plane ride and the congestion. So Today I went to the doctor and spent way more than I would have at home to get an injection to fight the inflammation and a nasal spray for the congestion along with a couple of other decongestants. The good new is it doesn't appear to be a sinus infection so if all goes well I should be better in a couple of days. I also found out that my blood pressure is doing great 119/87 and that I have lost 80 pounds since April 1, 2007 when I began my life style change.

Anchorage is beautiful. At least what I have seen thus far. Madison (Annie) and I went an elementary school here today and did an assembly for about 500 students. One of the students played the role of Sandy while Madison did "Tomorrow." It was very cute. After that we did an autograph/photo session at a local mall in conjunction with a radio promotion. It was a lot of fun.

Our schedule here is different. We didn't do our usual opening night on Tuesday to allow the sets to get here from Edmonton (a two day journey from Edmonton, especially with all the new fallen snow.) So we will open tomorrow on Wednesday due or regular schedule through Sunday and then close on Monday before we get a much need week off. I will fly home a week from today and spend a glorious week in good ole Hendersonville sleeping in my own bed, eating in my own kitchen, and hanging with my daughter Ashlea and bugging my wife Cay at work. And life doesn't get much better than that.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to All!