Getting too old for this shit. We had one of our big fundraising events last night at the Convention Center. Staging those things is an exhausting process.

After all the cajoling, bemoaning, planning comes the time when you have to come out behind your desk and get er done. That is the serious work and largely why my knees aren't speaking to me today. We had 45 restaurants, wineries, and breweries set and spread over the main two rooms of the Convention Center. Whenever something like that happens, the six of us in the marketing and development offices turn into roadies. Watching the spectacle build always intrigues me. With a group of volunteer board members we invaded the center on Wednesday night and arranged tables and set things in place. Yesterday during the day was spent getting water, pop and whatnot setup. We got some necessary things arranged. Then it was watching the parade of vendors.

Zoo staff tries to sample a little, but it is hard because you have to do a lot of glad handing. In my case, talking to the new vendors and gauging their interest and making sure things are working okay, dealing with account reps from our media partners, answering questions from event guests and just generally putting out fires before they turn into a thing.

At 5:00, the below was covered with tiny Chocolate Penguins shapes filled with Peanut Butter. Had to have a second to make sure the tastyness of the first wasn't a fluke.



It's a lot of running around, so it probably wasn't the best idea to head to the Wine Thief after the event, or to Faherty's after that. I would have figured after a decent amount of alcohol, being on my feet for 13 hours, sleep would have come a little easier. When you are running around a lot, most of the time you get passing glances at stuff, all of which llooked good and a few actual nibbles. I did take a second pass at the animal cracker themed creme brulee. The chocolate whipped cream was a little sloppy in terms of presentation, but after two days at the convention center, I was just glad for its inclusion.

You'd think sleep would be easy, but I got into bed a little after 1 and was a little too awake. And pretty soon the alarm clock sang a little too loudly this morning and the hours on the convention floor, wine thief and Faherty helped me to realize that I'm not getting younger.

Despite the aches, it was cool -- a good party and lots of suprising treats.

There was a short lived British pop/ska group in the early 80s called The Specials. They had a couple songs on MTV and went the way most of those bands did shortly thereafter. One of the songs was "Ghost Town," the chorus of which was suddenly playing in my head as I went to a morning meeting in Niagara Falls.

The actual town has its own issues, but the tourist side looks especially forlorn without the tourists. With all the stuff being built across the border just reinforces the growing inferiority complex. My meeting was at the Conference Center, a very nice facility surrounded by the saddest Starbucks I ever passed, and an alley of closed windows. You look to the right and can look through the broken windows of the old Wintergarden and see the gleaming towers from the Canadian side. The place looks like the setting for a Tom Waits album cover shoot. I'm going to this thing around 9 and it made downtown Buffalo look populace for morning rush hour. Right across the way, is the casino with nothing in progress around that.

Interesting, half expected to hear tumbleweeds walking from my car.

For once that doesn't refer to anything economic.

It's a strange feeling that I don't know if I can adequately articulate right. Aside from the shock of the plane crash and the sadness over the deaths, I'm feeling a strange sensation to see something so horrific happen in a place I know too well.

It's interesting. My folks house isn't far off one of the flight paths in Clarence. Usually if you are flying in from the east, you are out over where all the calamity occurs. Usually you get to peacefullly glide over Eastern Hills and Transitown before touching down, having done it a hundred times myself. My mom told me that her dad once said something about eventually a plane is going to land at Transitown.

I'm sad for the victims but relieved at the same time. A bigger, faster plane might have taken out more than just one house and one person on the ground. That type of plane doesn't go as quick so when it stops, it stops. A bigger jet might have been much bigger issue.

The town safety guy is the younger brother of a guy I went to high school with. He used to do battle with my Mom in her role on the town planning board. We didn't really get along, but I applaud him today. He's keeping a cooler head than many of the television folk are. Did Don Postles really need to berate somebody at Kaleida into coming on? Really? Did Ch.2 need to send somebody out with a laptop and a skype camera to show us nothing? When there is nothing to say, perhaps shutting the fuck up might be a viable option. Local media might want to start drilling like the emergency crews do as they should be embarassed.

Heard from my out of town siblings this morning both of whom were trying to remember where Long Road was in proximity to the rents (both of whom were safely oblivious till much later).

Strange days...

If you can start the day without caffeine,

If you can get going without pep pills,

If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,



If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

...Then You Are Probably The Family Dog!

I've never been a fan of automatic deduction from your bank account, despite all the many groups that love it. You never exactly when something is going to drop. You have religiously watch when things fall and register. Tracking netflix payments alone make my rapidly aging head hurt. You forget something you can be screwed. I completely forgot about my New York Flash pass--when you go over, it helps itself to reload, but never tells you when this happens. All the trips on the Penn Turnpike for the Inaugural came home to roost, yesterday, when I thought I had just barely enough room for things to post. Turns out I had no room. In essence, some bon mots from my folks went to bank charges which is not what you want to spend birthday money on. So, the tax return is going to be fun to compensate to make up for it. Aargh.....

Another commercial shoot at work yesterday. They don't require much out of me, but are exhausting anyway. This one featured my boss and by the fourth setup, she was getting full for the process, but sold the place like a trooper. Took them an hour to pack up, which was about 90 minutes past when my morning cereal gave out. My stomach was speaking yiddish by the time the six hour shoot was done. All hail, Joe's Deli (for the cookies alone) for being open when they were.

It's part of my job to take meetings largely for the sake of taking the meeting. Being a shameless bastard, when a quality lunch is offered, I'll go for the free food and hear the pitch for my ad dollars killing two birds with one stone. All the area account reps are thinking in similarly arranged areas. One of the tv folk took me to Merge which was really good last week. I'm rooting for the restaurant as everything seemed to be of great quality, right on down to the strawberry chocolate cheesecake. They have a slew of vegan, and gluten free options which should give them a chance. Today, I got taken to Chris's Deli which has always been really good. They make a really good turkey wrap which would have been better had I had better company, but he paid the tab, so I did a passable job of listening about what advertising with him could help my business. "Really, Bob, (chew, chew) That's fascinating, tell me more (Bite, chew, chew)." He did, Tool. It was like having lunch with Henry Blake. I wanted to smack him upside the head, but he was so botoxed I thought a prize might fall out.

It's a little scary who you can "bump" into via Facebook. My Dad launched a page this week and is filling his status with such observations like "just spotted a pot hole so large that there was an Indian Casino behind built at the bottom." Ain't technology grand? I told him to "friend" the daughters -- that will spook em good. I'm quietly very evil.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. You guys are the best peeps in all of explored space. It was pretty low profile, a little cake, sleepin in, a little brunch, even went to class on Sunday to exercise since as (e:drew) pointed out I'm looking my age.

Don't feel it though, so I guess that is good. It was nice that for once it wasn't colder than whaleshite on my birthday. Seems only appropriate since it has been for most of the past month. Busting one of my free airline tickets loose in April for a long Florida weekend. I won't be drinking anything with umbrellas floating in them, but it will be nice to know that they are nearby.

Let's be careful out there.