I posted this entry on my profile at the www.29gifts.org website. If you wanna friend me or join me on what will prove to be an incredible journey, please check it out at: www.29gifts.org/profile/davidkav ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I'm going to give myself the gift of making this a shorter blog this evening. The main reason? I am exhausted beyond belief. It doesn't help matters that it was another evening/morning of a 5AM bedtime and waking up this morning at 8:45AM for Morning Pages (which I did write for the record.) :) I had a doctor's appointment at 10AM. Ah, to Hell with it. I saw my therapist this morning (yeah. THAT kind of doctor.) I should have no shame in it since, in a sense, this 29-Day Giving Challenge is therapy in itself, no? It was a good sense save the fact that I was 6 minutes late which, again, I loathe. I tried squeezing everything in this morning (i.e. Morning Pages, vitamin, cereal) before seeing her this morning in order to maximize the time that I would have upon returning home for a few hours before I had to work today at 3pm. I return around 11:20AM. Beth Ann is still in bed. I decide to check my FAWM page to see the comments that may have been left for my songs. I do the same for this page. As I go along this month with both the 29-Day Giving Challenge and with the FAWM project, I really look forward to see what people are writing when they comment on my blogs. I have to tell you - they really make my day. I would be lying if I didn't tell you that I feel guilty since I don't read everyone else's blogs (I smell another gift around the bend, eh? This is just me thinking out loud...and beyond sleep-deprived.) So, before I say anything else to anyone who may read this, Thank you thank you thank you. :) I check the comments, I comment back. I clarify a couple of things/problems on the FAWM website in regards to reaching my music. There are frustrations (i.e. I can't post mp3s directly onto the FAWM website since their server doesn't allow that. So, when I post songs onto my site, the only song that you hear is the most recent one. With my posting of two/three songs, you don't hear the other one as readily - if at all.) Feeling tired and knowing that I can't fix the problem at that moment (and knowing that it's not a priority - if at all,) I let it go and head to bed for a couple of hours. Beth Ann comes into the bedroom at 2pm. Just enough time to get dressed and get to work. Get on the train (again - yay,) go to 7-Eleven, get into my suit and start the job for the day. I am tasked with two errands off-site right off of the bat. I don't mind this since I am grateful for anything that will keep me busy in order to stay awake. I complete my errands and come back 30 minutes later. We had no houseman this evening after 6pm. Along with the Abnormal Winter we've been having, this has also been an abnormal hotel season in the Best way. In short, our occupancy was at 93% today. With no houseman (since we didn't expect this occupancy,) it kept myself and my colleague, Brian, on our toes today. All throughout the day, I was determined in my haziness to remember remember remember that I have to give a gift today. But what? I didn't want today's gift to have Anything to do with money. My thought for the day: If I keep throwing money or finances by means of gifts, I'll start to skew my vision as to what the gift is, what it encompasses, and the gratitude, you know? So, today, NO MONEY. It's gotta be something I can give for free. Something meaningful YET small. Then, it hit me: I usually watch TV in the Breakfast Room/dining area of the hotel while I'm on my break. Tonight - my sacrifice is the TV. Instead, I'm going to call and talk to one of two people that I haven't really talked to in a while: My sister or my aforementioned friend in the last blog, Tom (the one who's getting married AND running the marathon in October.) It's time for break. I grab my food for the evening: Turkey and Hummus Wrap with fries. I go into the Break Room as opposed to the Breakfast Room. I really want to clear myself of all distractions. I sit down, say grace, and call my sister while I eat my dinner. No answer. No matter. I'll leave her a voice message. BUT - I need to make actual contact, in my opinion, for the gift to count. So, I move on to Tom. "Hello?" "Hey, man." "What's going on?" "Nothing much. Is this a bad time?" "No. No. I'm just hangin' out." "Ok. Well, I just wanted to give you a call. I know it's been friggin' forEVER since we last talked." He laughs, "yeah, no kidding. When was the last time we talked?" "The last time we talked was when we went out to eat and I got fitted for my tux." He laughs even harder. "Wow. Yeah, and I remember that huge steak omelette that I had when we went out to eat. I'm still recovering from that." I laugh even harder now. This visit was over a month ago. I spend the remainder of my break catching up with his work at The Rosie Show (he does production design;) I bust him out about the marathon since he stated that last year's marathon was supposed to be the last one. "And yeah, what happened to 'dude, I think this is gonna be my last marathon,' huh? I saw that post on the Chicago Marathon Facebook page from you and I thought, 'that motherf@#$@#...'" He laughs, "I don't know. I'm stupid..." "Nah. I think it's good that you're going ahead with it. For me, it was just tough to say 'no.' But, I know it's not a good idea with all of the stuff I have coming up this year, ya know?" "I hear ya." We agree to meet up sometime next week when he gets his schedule worked out (we agreed at least ONCE before the wedding in Dallas come March.) We say our goodbyes and I hang up the phone. I am grateful for the gift of the phone call with Tom because that interaction not only did him good. It did me a lot of good. I had another necessary spark of energy that would HAVE to sustain me. By the time the last two hours rolled around, I was wiped. Knowing I'd still have to come home, see Beth Ann and wrap things up, I had to pace myself. I come back from break with a LIST of things that guests needed all over the hotel. I'll state this - the hours flew today. Of course, after breaking down, getting out of the suit and waiting for the train, it took over an hour to get home since the "L" runs on Single Track service during the late nights for rail/track repairs/maintenance. In short, both trains run both directions on the same track. This can make for some SERIOUS delays. Good thing I was overtired at the time. I call Beth Ann at 11:55PM. "Hello?" "Hello. Sorry. I'm waiting for the train to get to one more stop before I get home. I'm sorry. I'll be there soon. Do you need anything?" "Umm.....milk?" It had totally slipped my mind that I used the last of it this morning. "Right. Ok. I'll go to Jewel and pick some up." Needless to say, it is 2:40AM CST and I am still typing this (Beth Ann talked about her day, we looked at prospects as far as condos go, and I helped her run lines for her run of "Little Red Riding Hood" tomorrow morning.) All of this before I could get to my computer. So, with dreary eyes, fatigued body but yet joyful and abundant spirits, I wish you ALL a good day/good evening whenever you read this. I am truly thankful to be in this cycle of giving. As it proved today in my fatigue: Sometimes the giving can work you. :)