Living In Fast Forward...

Yes, I thought it was about time to use another song for my post title. Thanks to Kenny Chesney for the inspiration... I have to say it fits though as I seem to almost always be living my life in fast forward - I rarely ever slow down to reflect on things, nor do I rest... I figured this morning would be a good time to do just that.

2007 has been quite an amazing year for me so far... 2006 was quite good in itself with all of the fun things I got to do - the baseball games, the Carrie Underwood concert road trips and all of the get togethers I attended.

This year, I've been almost constantly busy... Carrie's official fanclub opened on December 21st of last year, and I quickly took ownership of a very vital function on Carrie's official site - providing daily updates of her standing on the Pop, Hot Adult Contemporary and Adult Contemporary charts... my friend and fellow chart guru Cary has been keeping track of the progress on the Country charts... As the charts come out very early in the morning - around 7am ET/4am PT, the information is out there for publishing at the crack of dawn. Since Carrie has fans coast to coast here in the U.S., I figured it was in her best interest to get the chart information out to everyone as quickly as possible, so on March 1st, I COMPLETELY changed my schedule... Instead of getting up at 7am PT, and posting the charts at that time, I decided to start getting up at 4am PT and having the chart information out usually within the hour. In effect, I've gone from living on West coast time to living on East coast time... Needless to say, I've had a lot of good feedback (especially from the East coasters) who appreciate the information being there waiting for them when they get up in the morning.

This time change has had some other benefits as well - I often will now go to the gym at 6:30 or 7am in the morning and get my workout in before work, rather than after work, giving me more time to watch sports on TV when I get home! There is also usually no one in the gym at that hour of the morning, so I usually have free reign over both the radio and the TV! Additionally, when I go to work after being awake for four or five hours, I'm a lot more functional than when I'm only there an hour or so after I've woken up...

Of course, my change in sleeping habits came in very handy on my recent trip to DC and Orlando. I had no need to adjust the time I was going to bed or getting up! Typically, I'll get up around 4am PT and get to bed by 10pm PT... this transformed to 7am ET and 1am ET on the East coast... and since I needed to be up the final two mornings of my DC trip around 5:30am ET, it wasn't at all difficult for me to adjust... As for jet lag, well I certainly didn't feel it at all keeping this schedule!

As for the future this year, well I have A LOT planned... this Monday I'll be participating in a charity golf event in nearby Simi Valley. Next month I'll be attending some baseball games along with Keith Urban and Police concerts... I also have planned trips to the Pacific Northwest and another trip to Washington, DC for this summer - did I mention I REALLY enjoyed my time in DC? Unlike Orlando, DC really fit me like a glove - by my third day there, I could walk around confidently, without a map! I also want to go to Nashville sometime this year, though I'm having trouble fitting that in at the moment... and lastly, I have a couple of website projects I'm working on - more details to come on these later! Yes, 2007 is going to continue to be a quite busy and fun year for me!

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Finally, I'd like to wish a happy 89th birthday to my Grandma, Christine Moreno... as my only Grandparent left, I cherish every chance to get to spend time with her!