Art is taking a back seat to engineering...

So the big trade show is quickly closing in. I have desperately been working on four new products that will be unveiled for the first time. Not everything is working completely, but it is in good enough shape to do some demos.

This Saturday morning I take the train down to London early in the morning. I help set up and provide technical support for a big meeting that the sales and marketing department is putting on for our distributors. I'm staying overnight in London, then on Sunday the actual tradeshow begins. I really like travelling for work, probably because I don't have to do it very often. It is always a novelty for me to stay in a hotel room that someone else is paying for, and to eat what I want at a restaurant (within reason) knowing that someone else is paying the bill.

Despite the insane amount of work that goes into preparing for a trade show, I really do enjoy them when they roll around. Some people think we might not ever finish a design if it were not for the deadline of releasing a new product at a trade show. It's probably not far from the truth, especially for me with my procrastinating nature. It is even more interesting now that I can visit with people I know from my previous company in Salt Lake.

Unfortunately, the extra work and stress is killing me artistically. I am not working on new songs, I am not even practicing old songs, and I am not reading any books. I come home from work at night and collapse on the couch without much motivation to do anything. I am still getting plenty of sleep, it's just that my brain is spinning from all of the "engineering" that it has been doing all day. Heather claims that I am always "aloof" when I get home from work. It can be a challenge to switch over from engineering mode to relational mode. I can't help but wonder what I might be able to achieve artistically if I wasn't using all of my mental power on other things.

JE

PS - In case any of you are wondering about the football practise on Monday. It actually went pretty well. My skills were definitely rusty (it was embarrassing when I had to do long distance passing with my left foot), but physically I was able to keep up. I did use a bunch of muscles that I have not used for a while, so I have been a little sore for the last couple of days. There is another practise this coming Monday and I am looking forward to that. Fortunately football does not require the same mental attention that engineering does.