After spending a few vacations in a row doing this type of stuff, it begins to completely wear a person out.

But I’m not complaining. Nope. Instead, I’m glad because – just like with my student loans – I can now begin to see some light at the end of this tunnel of constantly working around the clock. What does that mean? Well, let me explain!

I’ve chronicled on this blog many times in the past few months that I’ve been getting rid of some website clients for a variety of reasons. The primary reason that I’m spinning clients off is due to the misunderstanding that many of my [former] clients had about what my duties were as a webmaster (i.e. I’m not the guy to call when your computer has a virus) as well as my rates being so low that I wasn’t turning a large enough profit to keep these clients in my portfolio. Was I turning a profit with these clients? More or less. But it certainly wasn’t akin to what my time is worth in the market. So by clearing out some of these clients, I’m going to open up some more free time in my schedule.

On top of that, I began this public relations certificate program at the local college last year. Why did I start the program, you ask? Well, I hate loose ends and I attended this college as a graduate student for one semester before leaving to go to Rutgers University to pursue a different Masters Degree. In the mean time, during that one semester at the local college I completed one course for three credits. Technically, I’ve had those three credits outstanding and just hanging around at the local college for seven years – and that has always annoyed me. To remedy that annoyance, I started a certificate program during the fall semester of 2009. The program calls for 12 credits in order to receive the certificate and I now have (including those three credits from 2003) nine credits completed in the program. I’m currently taking an independent study (in an awesome topic, by the way) that will be completed by December 15th of this year. Once the independent study is completed and [successfully] graded, I will be a certified public relations specialist. And I won’t have those three credits hanging around or have to worry about studying and researching like a graduate student any more, either. More free time and a free public relations specialist certificate? Works for me!

My other big commitment that will be alleviated before Christmas is my face-to-face teaching obligations at the local college. Currently, I’m teaching one face-to-face course twice each week in the morning. This is the first time that I’m teaching in the morning and it definitely has been challenging on my personal and professional schedules. Once this class ends, though, I’m not scheduled to teach another face-to-face class until next September. In other words, my time commitment at a college campus that is about 15 – 20 minutes from my home will dramatically decrease until next fall. Not bad!

As for the online teaching gig, all of the courses that I’m currently mentoring will be over in the middle of December. To date, I haven’t been scheduled to teach any new classes in December or January, but that’s okay. There is an ebb and a flow to the demand for the niche courses that I teach for this online university and I expect that the demand will pick up again in the early spring. Although you never know with this online college – sometimes they assign a course out of the blue. However, right now it looks like that obligation on my time will be easing up in the middle of December.

Thinking a little bit longer term, some of you may know that while I serve as the Treasurer of the fraternity Foundation, I am also leading our strategic planning process. We are scheduled to complete that process by the first weekend of February 2011. Once that process is complete, a great deal of my time that I spend in my mini-home office will be opened up again for me to spend on my personal interests or… nothing at all!

So when you read entries like this on JerseySmarts.com, don’t think that I’m bitching. In fact, I lay out these types of entries because this is still a personal blog and it helps me to organize my thoughts a little bit. So thanks for reading through my thought organization process!

It was pretty cool.

More than anything else, though, I have to say that the folks who worked at the Distillery were phenomenal. We went on a tour of the facilities and our tour guide (his name was John) was not just extremely knowledgeable about the Jack Daniel’s distilling process, but he was a funny, friendly guy, too. If anyone happens to be in the Lynchburg or Nashville area, then I highly recommend heading over to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. You won’t be disappointed!

Here are some thirty pictures from my visit to the Distillery. Enjoy!

In the mean time, I have a few entries ready for your viewing on JerseySmarts.com! I’ve set the system here to automatically upload a few entries over the next few days – I hope you enjoy them while I’m away.

The Sigma Pi Educational Foundation

Oh, and to wrap up the time frame for the whirlwind trip to Nashville, I was back in my townhouse in Tinton Falls by 10:15pm on Saturday night. No big unpacking and cleaning after the trip either since I only had a small carry-on bag with me for the entire trip. Quick and efficient!

Now that I’m back in New Jersey, though, I’m looking at my upcoming schedule and I didn’t realize how jam packed it was for the rest of this month. Actually, over the last few days I’ve been making plans as far ahead as November 2010. Not that I mind – I think it’s good to know your schedule well in advance (yes, even months in advance).

How are your schedules coming along? Does anyone else out there plan themselves weeks and months in advance or do most of you just wing it? I always wondered about how most people plan their days, weeks, and months. Hmmm… I bet there’s a study out there somewhere that I can download to read some research about the issue. Of course, I’m not sure if I have the time for that…

Before I finish up for the day, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that if anyone is looking for a great, extremely efficient nonprofit organization to donate any amount from $1 to $1,000 (or more) to, the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation is the right choice. I know many of my readers are financially savvy and know the tax planning benefits of making tax deductible donations to 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations, so consider the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation the next time you’re putting together your tax planning donations. And don’t worry, we have a variety of funds that you can donate to that benefit folks outside of Sigma Pi Fraternity, including a fund for disabled veterans that awards some great scholarships to even better people each year. Something to consider…

My plan for this staycation is to relax and accomplish some of the nagging errands and items that are on my “to do” list. For example, today I’ll go to the university where I’m an Adjunct Professor and sign-up for the free membership to the brand new gymnasium (built in the last few months). Sure, I already have a membership at my local gym, but it would be nice to have the option to workout on campus after I teach my class twice a week. Also, I’ll take care of the rent payments and some minor banking that I need to do during the course of today.

I also have some prescriptions to drop off at Wegmans and some phone calls to make for the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation (of which I am a member of the Board of Trustees). Then I plan on doing some work for Usable Web Solutions, LLC (which includes preparing future entries for this blog) as well as getting over to the gym to do some working out and reading on the treadmill before dinner. At some point I want to clean out my DVR today, too. Oh, and I brought just a little bit of work home with me from the office – to fill any gaps that I might have during the day.

I said this would be a relaxing vacation, right?

My purpose for going to Nashville was to attend the Board meeting of the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation. As I reported on this blog last year, I was elected to the Board of Trustees of my fraternity’s foundation; I’m also the Chairman of our Alumni Communications Committee. Since then I’ve attended a few different meetings and they’ve each been rewarding both personally and fraternally. Plus, we have a bunch of really great (and incredibly smart) guys on our Board of Trustees and hanging out with them is a lot of fun.

For lodging, I spent Wednesday through Saturday nights in the freshmen dorms at Vanderbilt University. I should note – while the Foundation has its Board meetings, the Fraternity itself holds its biennial leadership school on Vanderbilt’s campus. It’s one of the “features” of the leadership school that you live on the campus of the university for the weekend. And I’m all for the whole fraternizing with the different generations of the fraternity thing, but my back and body disagrees. In other words, if I have to go down there again I’m going to have to stay in a hotel!

Before I go on, I should also state that the campus is beautiful. The folks who manage Vanderbilt University have done a wonderful job in making that campus appear in tip-top shape at all times. Definitely a job well done.

Tracy Lawrence – a member of our fraternity – was in attendance at the leadership school. He gave a great speech on overcoming adversity. The undergraduates had some questions for him and I thought that his entire presentation was very well done. For a huge country music star, he’s a down to earth kind of guy.

I’ve been down to Nashville twice before and the downtown scene is always great. It was no different this time. Of course, we generally wound up at Lonnie’s Karaoke Bar in Printer’s Alley, but that’s because we’re a bunch of northerners who are fascinated by that whole scene. On Thursday night I may have had a few drinks which led me to get on the stage and sing Don McLean’s American Pie…but that’s another story.

I enjoy going down to Nashville. I can get a bit hot down there, but the people are really nice and the scene is wonderful. It’s definitely a place I would consider living outside of New Jersey. Anyway, I’m back now!

I’m sorry.

I’m apologizing because I was that guy at the gym tonight. Yes, I was the guy on the treadmill on his cell phone holding a conversation that had nothing to do with working out. As many of you know, I serve on the Board of Trustees for a national foundation. At some point around 7pm tonight, I got on a phone call with the Executive Director of our foundation. Since my back was hurting me this morning when I woke up, I had to go to the gym after work – and since I had that phone call scheduled, that meant that I couldn’t go to the gym until after the call.

But do you ever get on those calls where you just have to stay on the line because the discussion is so good that you need to explore it a little bit further? Well, our Executive Director and I had what I thought was an excellent conversation tonight about a variety of issues (some of which were eye-opening to me). But as the call went on I began to worry about getting my workout in. So I drove to the gym and sat in my car for another hour or so on the phone (one of my roommates actually arrived at the gym after me and left before me while I was taking the call).

Then when it got to be 9pm, I knew I had to get a workout in before I was too tired to do it. So I was that guy on the treadmill on his cell phone, but it was for a good reason. And now I will think twice about those other people who are on their cell phones. On the other hand, though, I was on an important phone call and I kept my voice down. Most of those other people get on their phones and start to talk way too loud and in an obnoxious tone!

By the way, tonight marks 18 days in a row that I’ve been to the gym. Pretty good for a guy who isn’t even on a diet and is just working out for the fun of it.

This time was a little bit different, though, as I was present at the event not as a chapter or regional volunteer, but rather as a member of the Board of Trustees for our fraternity’s Foundation. I’ve really enjoyed my short stint as a Trustee for the Foundation and I thought we had some great meetings in St. Louis. But there was more that I noticed out there this time around…

My favorite burger joint and bar were both closed! There used to be a place called Skeeter’s Eatery down by Laclede’s Landing (near the Arch) which is where we all used to go to each February. The place was gone! That was a bit upsetting – I assume the crappy economy had something to do with the decision for that place to close up. My fellow conference attendees and I went to the Morgan Street Brewery instead.

The Brewery is right down the block from where Skeeter’s used to be, but it’s a little bit different of a place for me the fifth time around. I remember the first time I went out there with two of my fraternity brothers – Booey and Gummo. We were shocked at the 22 ounce beers and we got completely hammered in the second building of the complex, which is more like a club/dance type of place. This time around I sat down in the main restaurant area and had a bite to eat with some of my fellow alumni and our undergraduates.

After dinner at the Brewery I was all amped up to go across the street to a bar called Study Hall, but they were closed and gone, too! That was pretty upsetting because I really enjoyed going there last time I was in town. The bar was set up with a schoolhouse theme and the waitresses were all dressed in the schoolgirl outfits. You can understand why someone would miss that place…

Anyway, my latest trip to St. Louis was fun, but I’m glad to be back and busy at work. Oh, and my undergraduates and alumni volunteers in New Jersey are awesome! They got me this beautiful engraved waistcoat watch thanking me for my time serving as their Province Archon (regional volunteer). That was really nice and I really appreciated it – New Jersey is the best!

As for you all – no worries! I’ve scheduled a bunch of updates to automatically upload on to my blog while I’m away. Though I’ll have limited access to e-mail and the internet while I’m gone, you all should be taken care of with these updates.

I’ll be back on Sunday night ready for work bright and early on Monday morning! Oh, and since my cousin Matt frequently reads my blog – Happy Birthday, Matt!