Halloween!!!

Claire is coming home today! This is the longest she has had to be away from work, and it has been kind of rough. The kids have been really good, but there just isn't enough hours in a day for everything without us parenting in tandem. We will be glad to see her.

M has his first ever field trip today, and A is having a party at her school. The of course trick-or-treating tonight. I'm looking forward to all of it, and it is even more enjoyable because for the second year in a row I am not gigging. In fact, it is almost a year to the day when I stopped working at Shout full time. There is no doubt I would have to work tonight if I was still there.

Man, I am not exactly sure where to begin talking about this part of my life, but it is definitely a part of my story. I am a dueling piano player. The very short version of this story is that a friend of mine wanted to start his own traveling dueling piano show in 2004, and he wanted a partner he could trust. I told him I didn't play piano, and he said he would teach me. 3 months later I began making money as a dueler, and a few years later I had played in 37 states.

From February of 2009 (about a month after M was born) until October of 2013 I worked at a dueling piano bar in Glendale, AZ. It was great for me and terrible for me at the same time. I gained a lot of experience with very talented respected duelers and I fell victim to the heavy drinking and high stress of performing for a living that often goes along with the profession. I worked very hard to improve and make the room as successful as it could be, and the day that I finally decided to leave was probably one of the scariest, most uncertain days of my life. I gave them several weeks notice, and they turned it down, leaving me with nothing but two weeks of saved up vacation time as a sort of severance until we would be financially, well, screwed.

I interviewed for my current job as a legal administrator on Halloween a year ago. Last month I got employee of the month. I still get to freelance as a dueler, and this past year has been the best financial year of my life. I'm happier and healthier than ever AND I get guilt free trick-or-treating with my kiddos tonight! What a difference a year makes.

A few points here. First, financial stress always seems to manifest as pounds for me. Right now things are good, so I'm doing well. The goal is to get the habits in place for the inevitable stress life will dish out at some point. Second, I have yo-yo'd even within this past year, and I would attribute that to the unhealthy patterns I have associated with dueling. It is a great way to supplement my income, but it puts me at the biggest chance of relapse. A dangerous game, but ultimately it is up to me to man up and not make dueling an excuse to be unhealthy, and if I can't do that then I need to stop dueling altogether.

So, 242.8 again today, but I signed up for all my races yesterday. Turkey Trot 10k on Thanksgiving, Rock 'n Roll 10k on January 18th, and the Phoenix HALF MARATHON February 28th. I put together a good training plan for the HALF MARATHON and the next few months I am gonna learn to run a HALF MAR-A-THON. So expect the next few months to be filled with posts about how I have passed out training. I'm excited and scared.