Finding A Family Feeling In Erie

One of the things that greeted my in the lobby of the Sheraton... I guess I'm in the right place.  

The day began with a scramble to get everything in the car after making a large mug of coffee. While this is not much different than my usual Friday routine when I am rushing out the door to get to the office, this Friday morning was different… it was going to take me a little longer to get to my destination. With everything finally packed, I kissed my wife good bye, got in the car, and punched in the address into my iPhone. Estimated drive time approximately seven hours.

The actually driving started off with the usual traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway and the flow easing up as I headed north on the Blue Route. Where I would normally get off to head east however is where my route took a drastic change and I continued north toward Scranton. I was making good time and was slowly climbing further into the mountains when the mandatory coffee refill rest stop beckoned me to come inside. Fresh coffee in hand I resumed traveling and was turning onto I-80 shortly thereafter.

I will say that hearing the GPS say ‘continue on this route for 176 miles’ is a little disconcerting when it first echoes in the car but I had little choice in the matter, I was taking the most direct route. After many miles of cruise control travel winding back and forth between the endless streams of mountains, it was time to make another stop. Fortunately, this highway (no tolls by the way) had plenty of places to pull over and stretch. This is how I wound up in Snow Shoe.

As I had a meeting set up for shortly after my arrival, it made the stop a quick one and pushed through to the end of I-80 before turning north for the final stretch of my journey on I-79. Somehow, despite leaving the apartment later than I would have liked, I arrived in Erie with enough time to check in, put my bags in the room (I lucked out on Thursday night by booking the last available room at the Sheraton), and head down to the patio for the work meeting. During this get together, arranged back in March when we were all in Atlanta, we went over a lot of point, took some additional steps regarding working together moving forward, and also got to know a little bit more about each other beyond work. It was a great meeting that I am glad that we arranged while I happened to be in town.

Obviously, that meeting wasn’t the impetus for the trip. The reason I traveled all the way across the commonwealth was for the Quarterly Communication of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania which would be happening the following morning. These are the kind of meetings that I highly recommend brothers attend if they are able, especially when they are held a bit further from where they live. Within a few minutes of my meeting coming to an end and while I was on the phone with my wife, the District Deputy Grand Master noticed that I was sitting outside and invited me to join him and the other Grand Lodge officers and their families for dinner upstairs.

Here was the view I had out the back of the hotel before heading to dinner.

Well, I wasn’t about to turn down such an excellent offer so as soon as I signed the check and finished the conversation with my wife, I made my was upstairs and joined him for an excellent meal. This was only the beginning of the evening as, after an excellent discussion about all that is going on in the district and at my lodge (as well as answering a plethora of questions I have been meaning to ask) I was invited across the hall to the cocktail reception. So that is where our discussion continued and eventually concluded later in the evening.

While I had planned on simply making the trip to attend the meeting on Saturday morning, the day turned out to be much more than that. This entire evening was as welcoming and friendly as any meeting I have been to since becoming a mason. It truly was a family celebration during which all brothers joined together to enjoy a great weekend of fellowship and freemasonry. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience and one that I look forward to having again next year (hopefully with my wife).

Working Toward Relaxation

Today was one of those days. The kind of day that no matter how much you get done and how much progress you feel you are making it never seems to feel like enough to get ahead. Not the first time I have experienced this and certainly not the last but it is frustrating regardless of when it happens especially when you know that the days that are going to follow will, more than likely, hold the same fate.

Making things worse is the weather both in regard to temperature and just feeling under the weather lately. For me, it just makes me push harder to get more done and keep working no matter how I am feeling. Sometimes you just have to grind it out… there is no room for the luxury of a day off no matter how horrible you feel or how piercing the headache.

Honestly, I wouldn’t know what to do if I were to take the day off. So far the one half day that I have taken off and the one day that I have requested are because of events that I want to attend. Even when taking a day off I seem to be busy. Being busy may be taxing at times and some people may think I am a little nuts (I won’t argue with them on that point) but it keeps me moving forward and looking forward to new experiences and opportunities in life. This is how I am able and why I chose to work 200+ hours a month and keep a full schedule of activities going outside of the office.

It just goes to show that you don’t have to have good hand eye coordination to be able to juggle. Sometimes the actions of keeping things going, keeping everything up in the air, is what ensures that we keep putting one foot in front of the other no matter how tired we get or run down we may feel. This is also why this blog just keeps going (sometimes, I’m sure, it even seems never ending), this is another task which I can focus my mind on and use the opportunity to fill in the gaps of my day.

This is one aspect of my means of relaxation. I work on this blog to recover from work. I utilize this space to just let myself think sometimes about one specific subject while other times I let myself jump around a bit. While I am sure it is getting a bit repetitive at this point it is still a fulfilling way for me to relax and write about what I want to discuss rather than about a topic that is dictated to me from someone else. I know that if I do nothing I begin feeling stressed and begin wearing down quickly which is why I have to keep myself going. These post along with everything else I do and every place I go outside of the office is how I relax.