Break Day

Well, I took today as a vacation day- however, I didn't realize how few people actually have Columbus Day off work. I did work a little this morning- sent some emails, made some follow up calls and then picked up our 17,000 halloween flyers which I'm starting to distribute tomorrow. The good news on the flyers was that I was able to save $100 by having them printed on lighter weight paper. The even better news was that they printed it on the regular paper, but charged me for the lighter weight paper!

There is a funny story that happened from this weekend. On Saturday night, my car broke down on the way home (that was obviously not the funny part). It broke down in the middle of the exit ramp in Hopkinton off Rt. 495, which is a pretty lousy place to breakdown. I got out of the car with my friend and we're standing in the median and I called the police for assistance. I was transferred to a trooper and it turns out it is the trooper who is featured in our calendar with his children! It was such a coincidence. So there I am, standing in the grass, in the dark, watching my poor car in the middle of the ramp, hoping that no one hits it and really hoping that no one gets distracted by my car, swerves and plows into both of us- all the while having a conversation about Project Smile- it was surreal. The best part was that the trooper told me that he had actually given out our stuffed animals that very day. He responded to a rollover on Rt. 495 which involved three children in the car (they were luckily not injured), he gave them the stuffed animals and said that it really made a difference for them and helped calm them. I was so happy to hear that story. It is always wonderful to hear feedback and particularly, while standing on the side of the road in that situation, it was great to hear something positive.

So what's on the schedule for this week? Halloween flyers! This is a 2 1/2 day operation. I have to distribute flyers to every elementary school in Worcester (there are many). The flyers are all collated into stacks of 25. It doesn't sound like it would take so long, but it takes for ages. I don't usually get to Worcester until about 10:15, mostly because I want to miss the rush hour traffic, then I need to be done before the buses start leaving, because that is a nightmare to deal with. Dealing with Worcester drivers is also a pain- some of them drive as if they are insane.

I also have ions of work to do for the Halloween event and trying to reach more people who are supposed to be participating, but haven't called me back. Ions- what a wonderfully dramatic word! One good piece of news- we have a professional caricature/face painting artist who will be at the event. So I am really glad that he will be there. The kids will love his work. I know the event sounds like a bit of a mess, it is going to be great- we have a lot of fun activities lined up. The problem is getting the safety participants to confirm their participation. Then the next big issue after the flyers is getting the warehouse decorated and ready for the show.

This week, I also have to keep working on calendar sales and contacting more police/fire departments. I need to get back to my proper exercise routine- it has been a little haphazard lately. I'm now off to pull out my list of Worcester elementary schools- all organized into quadrants- for tomorrow, send a couple of more emails, then have some yogurt, put some photos into my new photo album I bought today at Target and watch Jay Leno. I think this is one of the earliest postings I've done- it is only 11:15.

It was really nice to take most of the day off work today. I felt a little guilty at first when I found out how many other people were working, but I had already planned for a few weeks that today would be a day off, so I didn't want to change that. A while ago, I flipped through a book about highly successful business people- the guy who wrote it firmly believed in taking off every holiday and time on the weekends. I think that it is important. OK, I'm going to stop now because I feel like I'm getting ready to start rambling- until tomorrow friends.. wish me happy Worcester driving!