The Week Past, The Week Ahead

This week's Pipeline (Nov 2) was interesting, at least for me, since it was a lesson in working on the e-newsletter remotely due to an extension of an adventure which began the week prior.

This past Tues/Wednesday, I had stayed up all night long to get the Oct. 26 issue out before leaving for a 7AM Metra train to the burbs for a two-day meeting. I was so exhausted from lack of sleep and forgetting to eat while writing the day before, that I was trying to pretend I was 100% alert. Coffee works wonders. That night I took a cab home and fell asleep with my clothing on seconds after walking into the door of my apartment. Day two of the meeting went much better. Sleep is good.

At the meeting I met a lot of cool people including a new friend who recently moved to Alaska. On a whim, we decided it would be cool if I went back with him, just to see Alaska and to get away for a bit. The random opportunity could not have come at a better time. Lately I'd been feeling drained from wandering around Wicker Park and trying to keep the pipeline running amid other things like wondering where my life is going. I kept joking about wanting to "escape to Roscoe Village," and I guess I got my wish, plus a bit more.

Philin Phlash came aboard six weeks ago, and as he often reminds me that the pipeline should include more voices than mine own, I figured these few weeks working remotely would be the perfect chance to let Phlash shine.

Phlash uploaded images to a computer for the first time yesterday without my help, and he even set up his own Photobucket account!!! We really had to get the issue out, and I think my phone was on digital roam as I was helping him remotely for quite a few minutes. There were also a few voicemails related to the pipeline, and I had to call people back. I am scared to see my next cell phone bill.

To be creative is more of a compulsion and an illness than anything else. I really should have given up on this pipeline thing a long time ago, but each week a few more people add themselves to the list, or I receive a few sweet emails of encouragement from readers, and new people want to come aboard as advertisers, with little pressuring on my end, which was not the case when my main job was to sell advertising space and I felt like I was put on this earth to persuade people and hit quota.

But somewhere in this mess I've forgotten to take the time to take care of myself and to breathe. This trip is part pleasure and part businesses too, since I am still working, just remotely. Yesterday my new friend was at a conference here in Seward, Alaska, and I was stuck in a hotel room on wifi trying to put together yesterday's pipeline. I was so busy working that as usual I forgot to eat, and around 3PM I went looking for food, but many places are closed since it's the slow season. Food, or rather greasy pizza from a Chevron gas station was discovered, so I sat on a bench in front of the gas station eating a slice of pizza and staring at a beautiful mountain before going back to the room and doing a final proof.

Today I am going to stay away from the computer and check out this town! It's day two of J's conference, so I am again on my own. The hotel clerk said that the place to buy cheap clothing is True Value, so I am excited to buy a change of clothing since I came here with just one change of clothes. Tomorrow we head back to the smaller town two hours away where J. lives. The sun doesn't come up here until 9 or 10AM, which is so odd. It's also very cold. The people, however, are so friendly, perhaps more so in the off-season when there's no that many people around. The land is beautiful. I may not get an opportunity to be here ever again, so I'm just going to roll with it and go back to Chicago refreshed by a new experience.

Pictured are images I shot while walking a path to the nearest place to get wifi a few days ago, a coffee shop in a ski resort about a mile from where J. lives. There is a $1 shuttle bus which goes to the resort, but I had just missed it and figured I needed the exercise anyway.